Many Millennia Lost
by Cloudyvisage
Summary: The Emperor's Wrath has finally met a trap he can't get out of and finds himself awakening out of his time. A SWTOR crossover in the Clone Wars timeline. The Light Side Sith Warrior decides to work with the Republic to figure out where he fits in this new Galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

Millennia Lost

Preface

Life as a rule is generally challenging, frequently hazardous, arduous and sometimes very unrewarding. This was exactly what Belisaere had in mind when he thought of the life of a Sith, especially as he knew the risks going in, he would likely die, alone and forgotten in the wastelands of Korriban trying to make it as an apprentice, he knew and he chose. he was no slave, his family was true Sith, born and bred from an ancient lineage. Despite his misgivings being quelled early on, he found something else that confused him and set the rapidly growing dark heart in a slightly different direction, A Twi'Lek woman named Vette. She did everything he hoped he could do, disrespecting authority (Not getting away with it usually, but that's beside the point) being generally light hearted and not getting pulled down by the world around her, a unique skill that he wished he had known growing up. The days of his growth from an acolyte to an apprentice to a Lord of Sith are already logged in history and many should know already, it is very similar to that of others, save that he deceived his masters in a way very different than most Sith would do, he hid and justified his actions and proved himself above scrutiny just so that he might maintain his strangely light core of self. But this is merely who he was and his travels from within his time, however, the Force had a very different idea of where he should his apex of power.

Chapter 1: The Nature of a Sith Never Changes

At the sound of blaster fire I can easily realize I have been betrayed, not an uncommon occurrence at the top of the Sith hierarchy but nevertheless an excessively tiresome one. I really thought that with the position of The Emperor's Wrath that the backstabbing would at least slow down a bit, but that really was a foolish thought after all, not much point in believing in the humanity of the Sith when they actively deny such a thing. Anyway, the blaster fire from the converging troops in the compound indicate that I will likely have to be moving or I will have so many of them on me I may not be able to block all of their shots. I look back to Vette and see her eyes glint maliciously at the challenge, perhaps some of my inherent Sithy-ness is getting to her, I didn't think she was aggressive in this way when I first picked her up, but maybe she was still locked away in her shell back then… Anwyay, I need to be leaving and Vette has little way of survival without me so she's coming with me. "Okay then, welcome overstayed, Vette, we will be leaving now, shoot out the window while I block them, that's our exit." I point out which window then stick with concentrating on blocking the shots while she shoots the presumably reinforced glass repeatedly "I'm not getting through, these windows are designed NOT to be shot through, this IS a Sith Lords compound ya know?" Vette remarks sarcastically back at me. I knew that already I was just hoping that maybe for once I could jump out a window to escape instead of backtracking through the whole facility all over again "Well… fine, we'll walk out the front… again…" I sighed. The facility would take a little time to get out of but nevertheless, with Vette watching my back somewhat I should be able to manage regardless, this will cause a significant amount of braindead slaughter on my part, but I do have some time to think I suppose, perhaps about why this trash of a Sith Lord thought to lure me to his compound with fake info about Darth Baras' hidden facility then proceed to attempt to kill me.

The entire situation stank of a trap but I have always been terrible at avoiding traps, I typically face them head on, survive them, then solve the situation afterwards, no one ever seems to think their trap will fail, a very notably problematic mentality, one I hope the future generations of Sith get over quickly.

As I was thinking of these relatively useless things I noticed the guards I had been killing were rapidly changing, the guards were no longer humans and a few aliens mixed in but were now almost entirely composed of guard robots of various types, I'm almost positive I saw a droid that was designed for culinary purposes a moment ago, is the resident getting desperate? "Vette keep an eye out, he seems to be getting desperate enough to be sending whatever he can at us, expect a last ditch effort soon" I quietly lean over to Vette and whisper. She nods lightly and turns back to her targets but is now looking around a bit more.

Just as I begin thinking we've made it free we enter the main auditorium of the compound, a huge windowless room that looks designed to fit hundreds of people and I see our host, Lord Worthless standing at the front addressing us. "Why hello and I hope you have enjoyed your stay at my abode Wrath, but the…" Lord Trash spoke to me in such a lordly tone I immediately had to shut him up, I might be a relatively nice Sith but never once have I considered myself not a Sith, killing is a natural part of being a Sith and this Lord was so pathetic that he was unable to get out of my choke. "You never learned your manners, let me make a simple final lesson, don't patronize your superiors, especially if you've irritated them. That's actually all I'm going to give you, I really don't even want to put in the effort anymore, just die." With my words I throw my lightsaber and cleave the poor man in half, he really should have worn some armor, he might have only gotten a deep gash if he had. While chuckling very lightly to myself I hear a warning siren and see the doors behind me close rapidly and the vents around the room open up. I hear Vette sharply inhale "This… oh, dang, I kinda always felt like one of these traps were gonna get us eventually, what do you think the chances of us surviving this are?" she jokingly stated a terrifying truth. I looked at the vents and wondered briefly if I could stuff Vette in one, but I don't think she would fit, walking over to the wall I began considering the death of myself and Vette, I found my thoughts rapidly darkening an strove to maintain control, but nevertheless I moved into that dark haze, deeper and deeper. This could not have been done by some worthless Sith Lord, A Darth was involved here and whoever that was would pay, they would pay dearly/ The darkness became deeper until all I could see was a blood red haze with vague shapes in it only one blue speck remained in my vision, a beacon telling me that which should never be harmed, I suspect it to be Vette but I'm not so sure right now. With my Hatred seething and the Force urging me forward warning me of impending disaster I struck the nearest door with the force repeatedly, I then added my saber to the attacks.

I could feel the Dark side burning deeper in me telling me to submit completely as I dug deeper, the doors were giving but it was too slowly, the Force warning blared in my mind, impending danger was but a step behind then suddenly the Force gave me a slight tug and I could feel a hand on my shoulder melting away the hate, there was sadness but there was also a strange joy. "Hey, hey, come on back… everything's getting a little fuzzy, come back to me…" Finally Vette's voice broke through, I looked back to see Vette teetering and about to fall over while looking at me "Oh… good, I was wondering if you were gonna get stuck like that, not much of a way to go, all angry and vengeful, kinda… depressing" She fell over as she said that, but I caught her before she hit the ground "Hey, I won't have you going to sleep yet, I still have a few things to ask you like would you like a nice house in the city or suburbs or way out there? Though I refuse to buy a house on Tatooine, even if it was a moisture farm, that isn't a very kind place to live." I said whatever came to mind, useless things that had no meaning but whatever would put her at ease, I'm no toxicologist so I have no way of knowing if this mist is lethal or not, I hope so dearly that we will wake up to find ourselves still in this room and laugh it off, but I can tell that is far more than a miracle at this time, the Force would never have warned me so desperately otherwise. "Did… did you know that you did more than help me when you got me off Korriban… and took off my slave collar? You… truly saved me, made me realize that I could be a person who can do something, I wasn't worthless, just another parasite on the galaxy, I could do something, be something, I could be something to… you… Please… remember that you don't need to be alone in this galaxy… You're… You're such a great guy I'm sure even the Jedi would like you…" as she trailed off in a direction that made me ever so more worried about her she lifted an arm up to my mouth, a single finger hooked my lip then her hand went limp and her breathing slowed.

The next few minutes were pure torture, I could feel my body getting weaker and weaker, even with all the resistances I had built up through the years of training my body and being subjected to toxins, but even worse was watching Vette's breathing become lighter and lighter and then stop. My deprived mind wanted to become enraged, destroy everything around me, but I couldn't, an excellent counter to a Sith a chemical to prevent emotions, or maybe I was too tired now, They've already won, I will sleep and hope that I have enough value to keep myself and Vette alive.

A foggy shape entered my vision for a moment and I heard a few ethereal words enter my mind from the two in front of me. "Ashara, load him up, time is of the essence the others will be here soon, can't have that." The yellow and blue blur left and only the black and brown remained. "Hey Wrath, you're a little too volatile for me and I can't very well control the broken pieces of the empire with you also exerting influence, best of luck in the case you aren't scrapped…" the blur then left as did my consciousness


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Lost Time &amp; Culture Shock

My mind was hazy as I began to hear and feel again, my body felt stiff and there was the traditional smell of… Carbonite. As my senses began to reset and register I realized my sight wasn't coming back, I panicked for a moment before remembering Carbonite freezing causes temporary blindness and that smell likely meant that was what it was.

A voice lightly spoke near me "Weird skin, never seen an alien quite like that wonder what he is?" I strained to look toward the voice and heard a gasp "Oh shoot, I think he's awake, why did you go and activate the stupid Jedi statue?" "How was I supposed to know there was an actual freakin Jedi inside the statue? I just saw a piece of tech and got interested, besides how is it no one noticed the panel underneath the thing when they brought it over to the village? Seems they would have paid attention to the fancy new statue they found." The voice was joined by another, they both seemed to be young voices probably barely even teenagers. However the information they brought forth was useful, I can assume I was frozen on carbonite, perhaps covered in something else to look like a jedi statue or maybe I was posed a certain way while unconscious and that this is way out in the outer edges or somewhere poorly educated to not know of my race.

I decided to take a chance and get some information from these children "Where am I, What planet is this?" The two children sounded startled as the girl said "You speak really odd, like, sorta old or something, weird… oh, right, you're on Ryloth in our village. The adults found you out in the wastes next to an old spaceship that they checked through that looks like it crashed" The ship was likely my shuttle onto the planet, how rudely kind, my capturers drop me off on the Twi'Lek homeworld in some stab at my weak points again. "Were there any other… statues near the crash site, perhaps of a Twi'Lek?" I asked the children. "No, but the adults are still looking through the crash site, it had some good stuff on board even if most of it was old, hey, do you want us to… umm… help you up or get you to… somewhere?" the boy stuttered out not quite sure what he should do with a blind formerly a statue 'Jedi' and so just offered me whatever came to mind. "I would appreciate somewhere to rest until my eyesight comes back but it will not be crippling if your elders or the like need to speak to me the Force can be my eyes" Though Sith have never been well known for using the Force to replace their senses unlike Jedi, it's not as though it's unheard of, or even particularly uncommon it just isn't very Sith-like I guess, but I've never strived to be very Sith-like. "Okay, you can rest at our house, Mom probably won't mind too much." The children were apparently siblings, perhaps twins? So long as their parent doesn't somehow turn out to be a Jedi I don't expect much trouble.

"Hey! You two! Get in here! I needed your help this morning when you ran off, where did you go?" A motherly voice yelled out from either a window or a door on the house. The entire village felt like the caves I've been to before, perhaps due to the hostile environment on the planet's surface, I've never been particularly interested in Ryloth, it's similar to Tatooine in my mind, that is, useless to learn much about unless relevant. The two children felt… perhaps scolded? I don't know this parent child relationship so I can't quite tell. "Hey Mom, is it alright if we have someone over for a bit? He's not feeling so good." That was a very selective way of asking if a person can come in, particularly as they made me sound like a neighborhood child. "Fine, but you two are getting the laundry together and getting it clean, by yourselves." The woman inside can't seem to see me from the opening and is only speaking to her children, this is making this entire situation completely irritating. "Excuse me, I appreciate what your children are attempting to do, but I only need somewhere to rest until I regain my eyesight from Carbonite freezing, it need not be at your home, but having no eyesight is rather frustrating and I would like to know how I came to be here." The woman's emotions became startled "Who are you? Are you a Mandalorian? Why are you in our town?" she quickly stated while pulling the children towards her, I think… I really don't like looking around using the Force. "I am not Mandalorian, what even gave you that idea? And I am in your town due to the fact that I was frozen inside a statue your people brought in and these children opened the seal." She seemed to calm down at my straightforwardness and gave me the answers I needed. "It's because of the large amounts of armor you wear, it doesn't look quite right but the Mandalorians are the only ones I know of that are that heavily armored, also, you were that statue? So you're a Jedi?" Why do they keep thinking I'm a Jedi? The youngsters would make sense, anything with a lightsaber in their space would be a Jedi, not a Sith, but I won't correct them. "Well, I do need to get back to the Jedi Temple, do you know how to get to the spaceport? I suspect I could use some of the things I have on me to pay for passage, could you show me there, the Force will let me see good enough for now" If I can get to the spaceport then everything should be fine and I can get back to Imperial space and start my Vengeance. "I can show you to the spaceport, it's actually very close, kids, get to that laundry now and tell your father when he gets back about what happened, I'm going to take the Jedi to the spaceport." She started to get the children started, clearly at ease now that she knows I'm a Jedi, known for their generally friendly dispositions.

The spaceport was pathetic, it was ridiculous, I don't even know how a ship would get in here or out, even with the gates opening extra wide. Now that the woman has shown me to the spaceport I will be able to get back here, but I need to check that ship wreck first. "Thank You for your help, please go in… peace." Peace, right…

The ship was sunk deep in the ground as if it had been here a long time, this was not a crash that sunk it this deep, I don't feel so good about how long I was asleep anymore, am I still the Emperor's Wrath? Has the power shifted heavily? Will I need to fight an entirely new Dark council to reassert dominance? As I put in the code to enter I realize the ship has lost power, even down to small long lasting batteries that power the code entry, so instead I wrench the door open and step inside. The inside is much the same way I left it, so I stalk over to my cargo bay and remove anything I can carry and stuff it into a bag, I strap a few more lightsabers to the inside of my cloak just to make sure and even put a blue color crystal into two of them just in case then headed out.

Getting off planet was wonderful, the planet was a hellish environment, like intentionally staying out in the wastes on Korriban but more extreme. The ship is a tiny one, but it is heading toward… Coruscant. I heard. I heard the date, the time the ruling government, I heard it all and it's all wrong, the years, they are so far off I don't even want to think of the difference in time, there is no possibility of anyone from my timeline being alive, even if others were frozen as well it would take many years to find them and they have more likely become unfrozen sooner or were simply killed instead. If it's the Jedi Temple I might find out something, it sounds like they are facing a very definitive number of Sith at the moment and therefore I may be able to… deceive them. The sheer anger I can feel welling up must be cut off, I am going to a place of the Light, they will notice me immediately if I am not exceptionally careful, I must assume that the current masters are each on the level of being able to face me and beat me by themselves and I must not face whoever is the Grandmaster right now under any circumstances. I look forward to the challenge, they will have the information I need so desperately.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Painful Symbiosis

The Jedi Temple was… different, from how I remember it, the size was larger and it felt more at home in the environment of the city planet, unlike what it felt like before which was an unfitting building in the sea of cities, but he was not part of the Sacking of Coruscant so he only knew second hand information but it was very interesting nonetheless. After seeing the security on the Temple I decided to move towards it and put on a brown robe to fit in a bit more, while I may not fight like the Inquisitors I did need to pick up tricks from them in order to catch some of them. I can cloak myself impartially in the Force to make others incapable of seeing the Force directly unable to pay close attention to me, sort of a constant force suggestion to others around me, with negligible effects on those actually trained in the force but there are plenty of normal humans and Padawans around here. By flowing in like I belonged with the others and keeping the hood up no one was able to pay attention to me enough to break the cloak.

The Temple was incredibly well designed, unfortunately that does mean that I was completely clueless as to where I was. After wandering about for a while I found the archives and wandered inside. The security was surprisingly tight considering the entrance was already guarded, perhaps the information inside had been threatened before, the guards however were significantly lacking in highly trained Force users for some reason and the ones I did find I simply avoided, they did not seem interested in me in the first place, complacent guards are the same as always.

I begin checking through the archives for anything from my timeline, hopefully no one pays attention to me while I move the Holocrons around, they may be able to tie the movement to the non descript person I am. "Hey, do you need some help finding something? Cuz this section is for ooooold stuff, are you sure you wanna be checking this?" Shoot, immediately as I thought that I get hit by this, the youthful voice shattered my hopes at total stealth and I turned around slightly to address the guard. "I believe I will be fine, though if you could point me at the area with information on the… time when the Republic was facing the old Empire that would help me some." The youngling was a Togruta with scarcely developed Montrals, hopefully she was just young enough she would not be able to sense anything at this vicinity, though if she could point me toward the right area of the archive then I could get out sooner. The eyes of the Togruta bored into me, I could feel her suspicion toward me, her emotions were sitting out in the open for me to see as was her every intention, she decided to do something about me it seems. "Okay, wait right here and I'll go get… the catalogue! Yeah! I'll be back" That… that was pathetic, she barely even tried to conceal that she is going to get someone else, likely to catch me, well, it was bound to happen eventually so I suppose that I will be needing to get off to the section I saw her glance at before she left, maybe that has what I need.

The information was unfortunately very accurate, so accurate in fact that I found the location I was originally trapped at and shipped to afterwards, it seems the perpetrator was Darth Nox which explains quite a bit, if there was one person capable of getting me good it was her she was pure cunning after all, I suppose I have her to thank for the records though, her reports were always very detailed. As I was looking through the Holocron I could feel Force signatures surrounding me on all sides, the Jedi were here finally, took too long, I grinned.

~Ahsoka POV~

The library is stupidly booooring, it's completely unnecessary for me to be here 'Guarding' anything, I already caught the stupid copycat thing, the likelihood of someone else trying after that is, like, zero. As I wandered around the library looking to do something after Master Jocasta Nu shooed me off I found some big guy looking at the old section, he was looking at some Holocrons but he didn't seem to be finding what he wanted as he kept shaking his head and putting them back, for some reason I didn't notice him until after I saw the Holocrons going toward him. After going up to him and asking him if he needed some help he slightly turned to me, which immediately made me suspicious and then asked me where the stuff related to the old Empire was, so I gave him some excuse and ran off to find some guards to check him out.

The guards had him surrounded on all sides and they were well trained so why were they all floating in the air helplessly now? Who was this guy, he was clearly a Force user but a Jedi wouldn't need to break into the archives right? So… is he a Sith? But we know who most of the Sith are and would the Sith be so stupid to attack in the heart of our territory? Anyway I better get on him now then and save everyone, afterall, that's my job. And my Master's I suppose. "Hey, stupid guy! Attacking in the middle of the Jedi Temple really isn't a good idea ya know? So how 'bout you let me beat your face in?!" I thought it seemed like an earnest request but he seemed to not like it as he pulled out multiple lightsabers. He seemed to ponder at them while I rushed at him before choosing one and putting the others away, a blue beam extended from the handle and set the blade to receive my attack. The lightsaber that just blocked me was next to my face somehow, the Force had given me the warning so fast I couldn't even react to it and I clumsily batted the blade that almost decapitated me away and settled into my form while watching him for a moment, he didn't seem to be in a form at all, or at least not one I knew and just stood there. "Youngling, why is it you attempt to fight me? Wouldn't it be a far better idea to get a Jedi knight or Master to face me, even a Padawan would have a better chance against me than you, for now, leave me to my research and find someone superior." He put away his saber and looked back to the Holocrons. He choked all of the guards to unconsciousness and left me to go get another Jedi, but more importantly, he didn't even think I was a real Jedi! "Hey! I am a Jedi, a Padawan! And I can fight just as good as any other Jedi too! So I'm going to make you see that I am tough!" I lunged at him ready to strike when I stopped in the air, he was holding me still! I struggled against the Force but it held firm. "Very well Padawan, I need some help finding a very specific, likely unimportant record, I wish to know what happened to a certain Twi'Lek during the Great Hyperspace War and it is tedious to find one Twi'Lek in these records, therefore you will assist me." He… wanted to find an old Twi'Lek? Also, I've never seen an alien like him… wait, there was something familiar, I think I saw something somewhere about his species but I don't remember it. "I don't need to help you if I can beat you!" I yelled loudly hoping someone would hear and help me out. "Why do you persist? I am clearly stronger than you come help me and I will have no harm come to you or those here, very simple right?" he calmly stated, he was frustrating me, I can't seem rile him up either… "Fine I'll help until someone comes, but I'm not letting go of my Lightsaber!" He can't get me anywhere near him with no weapon.

~Belisaere POV~

The Togruta has finally calmed enough to be manipulated a bit, I'm not going to bother messing with her head, I'll be found eventually, I don't need them trying to kill me too while capturing me for harming a Padawan. "Good, check over there for a Twi"Lek named Vette if there is any reference to her immediately inform me no matter how small." I made sure she understood before looking at another Holocron. The Togruta seemed to be working but after a bit she started to get antsy and looking at me repeatedly. "Hey, so who are you? I told you who I am, or… wait, no I didn't, I am Ahsoka Tano Jedi Padawan under Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker who I'm sure you've heard of and also are the guards okay? I thought I saw them breathing but if you did something else to them…" The girl wouldn't shut up, I feel like I've met the reincarnation of Vette, albeit with a lightsaber. "Okay then Ahsoka you need to focus on the task at hand, you remind me of my wife, never able to quite stick to one task at a time, or realize when talking is going to make things worse." I lightly scolded her but didn't want to go into detail on who my wife was with her. "Ok, I can be quieter, by the way who is the Twi'Lek? Is she some ancestor? Wait, I didn't think that Twi'Lek could have kids with most humanoids… or is she your wife's ancestor? So your wife is a Twi'Lek?" The girl didn't understand at all and didn't even seem to pay attention to my earlier scolding, I feel some pity for the Jedi having to kindly raising their Padawans without any sort of threats or violence, some people just really need a little pain to understand, this Anakin must have his hands full. "You do need to learn to shut up eventually, also, the Twi'Lek is… what you said is close enough I suppose." I think the girl saw something in my eyes as she stopped prying that was sloppy, my emotions need to be held in check here, the Jedi are very adept at noticing those sort of infractions.

With our hands busy we passed some time simply looking through the archives, the data was useless to me, most of it was bits and pieces I already knew or could infer easily enough from how things were going at the time. "Oh, hey I found a record from an Imperial log that references a Twi'Lek named Vette it says she was married to a Sith named Wrath, or is that his title? Dang, your wife's ancestor was married to some evil big shot better watch out, your wife's got some scary ancestors then." Hearing her refer to me in such a way made a wry smile crack my lips. "Also it says she died… by being frozen in Carbonite then delivered to the Hutts to be executed. The Hutt threw her into a Sarlacc pit along with a number of other traitors and people who angered him… Ouch, that is a really bad way to go, those imperial guys aren't really nice about traitors huh? Well, that's how she died, did you want to know that or something she did while alive?" As the girl turned to me she saw my face and must have realized she said something wrong, I can only imagine the look I had on my face, I was desperately trying to keep my anger in check, so desperately, but the haze refused to be hampered and I could feel the blood boiling in me. I heard a startled voice "Hey, what's wrong? You don't look good and you… ugh, you feel like the… Dark Side… Are you a Sith?!" The girl in front of me pulled her Lightsaber out again and held it ready, but I was in no mood to fight something that would die from a flick by me. "Take me to a calm place. IMMEDIATELY. I have no time to bother with your confusion." She rapidly looked around nervously and said "As long as you don't hurt anyone I'll take you to the meditation chambers. Just be really quiet and try to calm down, the Masters will find out at this rate." Even if the Masters were comatose they would have felt what I just released. "Nevermind, point me and I will go, leave me, I found what I needed, go tell your masters that I wish to speak to them in the chambers." Bewildered, she ran off after pointing in a direction, the girl would be swift about it, I should get out quickly as well. As I turned to leave I heard an older voice behind me, "And what are you doing in my archive Sith? Leave now or I will have to force you out." The voice belonged to an old woman wearing strange garb different from the traditional Jedi robes, but nevertheless she radiated strength as only an old Jedi Master could. "That works just fine for me, I was heading out anyway, I found what I needed and have no need to continue looking, I will be going to the meditation chambers now." The woman looked slightly startled and replied, "Do you intend on corrupting that sacred place with your darkness?" I rolled my eyes, everywhere was sacred to the Jedi so why would the meditation chambers be especially sacred? "No, I plan on calming myself via meditation, therefore I plan on the using the chambers as they were intended so please stop saying whatever you feel like to me, goodbye."

I set a quick pace towards the chambers occasionally asking startled younglings or Padawans where the chambers are until I arrive. I find a calm tree near a brook and settle down reminded of Dromund Kass if it weren't so stormy, the haze had subsided slightly but was still just under the surface threatening to consume me and everything around me, I begin calming myself by thinking of Vette and blocking everything out, the Jedi are unlikely to execute me as I am, so I don't feel uncomfortable cutting off my senses one by one. "Vette, I had hoped they would have let you off or get away but I see that was a foolish possibility, you deserved better than me, if I had been a bit stronger I could have saved you, tell me, what am I to do, I am without purpose, give me one." The Force lightly prodded me and I could feel Jedi about me as my senses gradually returned, the number was well over a welcome party, this was a hit squad plain and simple. "Well, the Jedi have not changed, what do you want to know? I'm not running as you can see so get your questions out now and perhaps you might answer some of mine." I brazenly looked at a small green one with a powerful signature as I stated my terms. After the Jedi looked at me for a bit the green one nodded to another of similar age to myself, he didn't seem to be a focused fighter but his signature was strong enough he probably could be one if he needed to be. "Could you please tell us who you are first then, and why you have come here?" The Jedi seemed to be their chosen negotiator. "My name is Belisaere and I came here to find the logs on what happened to a certain Twi'Lek I once knew. That is all, I have no intention of attacking your Temple and instead I am more pleased by the Temple's existence rather than displeased so I am not interested in anything else. At least not at the moment anyway, I have found myself recently… indisposed, and have no intention of assisting the Sith you are fighting, In fact, if you wouldn't mind giving me the opportunity I would appreciate the chance to eliminate them myself, they sound pathetic." The Negotiator seemed a little off put by this but only minimally, "Well then Belisaere, My name in Master Kenobi and this is Grandmaster Yoda, while I would like to take you at your word we have a tendency to be hesitant around Sith due to their nature being one that involves a significant amount of conniving and backstabbing, therefore could you please come with us, we will be taking you to a warship capable of holding you, we will be asking you a few question on the way if you don't mind" The man was eloquent to say the least, completely unnecessary but nevertheless calming. "Oh, I'm fine with that, though I have found Jedi to be exceptional at conniving as well, so I would appreciate someone a little less… dangerous to come along so that I might have an idea beforehand if you attempt to execute me or the like, perhaps the Padawan I met earlier… Ahsoka, I believe? Anyway, I'm sure we have plenty to talk about so let us depart" This was going to be... Interesting.

Hey all, Thanks for checking out this story, I don't consider myself to be an expert on Star Wars lore, but I have the internet and a significant chunk of knowledge to go through, by the way, I wanted to point out that the Sith Inquisitor was the one who did the backstabbing in this chapter in case anyone didn't get that, though if you never played the game you still wouldn't get that I suppose. Anyway I appreciate any remarks and I expect the impact seen to be starting to ripple from this chapter on. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Traitor's Gaze

I believe that the technology has stagnated much, the arms race that I have observed either indicates that very little advancement has happened in the many thousand years I was asleep or there was a technology regression at some point, though there were some interesting things such as the amount of armor the Jedi wore, it was pathetic, almost nonexistent, did they favor themselves invincible? Otherwise though it appears I was rather misled by the Jedi to believe they had a good position, they are fighting an enemy they know precious little, even the current Emperor was unknown only his right hand and the apprentice under that were known of the Sith. "Well, I find your information gathering to be vastly inferior to the SIS of the past, let alone Imperial Intelligence judging from your actions up to this point, but I suppose with what you've told me there might be more I don't know." I chided to Kenobi informing him of his orders weakness. He did not look particularly perturbed when he told me "It may seem that way but we have some of the strongest Jedi available to us and are in a far superior position after we gained the support of the clones, while the fight may be challenging we will win eventually." He seemed very confident in his assertion, it makes me wonder if he is even worried about this Emperor, he and his order don't seem to get it, the Emperor is the problem, the Seperatists mean nothing once he is gone and I have no intention of letting the old Sith order win this war, it died before for good reason. "Well, seeing as your order seems to be working right, that is, getting stuck on the wrong problem per the usual I plan on assisting your war effort, if this is problematic I will join the order, though I expect you will find me to be among the worst Jedi that there ever were, I will be doing very little reigning of my emotions on the battlefield. Also, if you cannot find who the Emperor is simply put me near people in power on both sides and I will find him eventually if he has not secluded himself." This suggestion seemed to put the Jedi Master in a good mood for some reason, "I think you have more Jedi in you than you think Wrath, would you prefer I call you something other than your title? I can still hardly believe that you were frozen that long, though the Sith of that age were particularly vindictive, present company excluded of course." The man seemed determined to make me friendly but I had no such intention until I saw a Padawan for a moment I could not be sure of their intentions, once I saw Ahsoka I would be able to tell if they were going to kill me, they would never send a Padawan near someone they were going to execute after all.

While idly chatting with Kenobi the door swished open revealing a young man with dark hair and a scar over one of his eyes with a somewhat irritatingly exuberant Padawan next to him, so this is probably Anakin Skywalker. "You… Hmm, well I would like to speak to you separately later about something you may find helpful, in the meantime it is good to meet you again Padawan Tano, I think I can assume I will not be executed now, always a nice feeling." Anakin did not seem pleased by my statements and instead narrowed his eyes further then looked at Kenobi, "So I heard we have a resident Sith aboard and he is some old should be dead one? And that for some reason he's cooperative?" He clearly did not have very good opinions of Sith and those emotions he has sitting under the surface will not help him if he doesn't learn to use them or suppress them. Kenobi looked at the knight with a slightly exasperated look and proceeded to inform him of the situation. "Belisaere here is a little out of his time and while I wouldn't say you should respect him as an elder you should respect him for his willingness to cooperate, anyway, he has spoken nothing but truth to us as of yet and we have not been light on the questions, he is likely one of very few chances to find the Emperor." Anakin nearly exploded at that statement. "He could easily BE the freaking Emperor, why are you taking his word? We know almost nothing about the Emperor, and barring that he is a SITH even if he is from the past he was likely just as backstabbing then as he is now!" He was clearly not pleased, but there is a very simple way to solve this. "Very well then, if you don't trust me then tell me what would make me trustworthy enough to assist you in your little civil war, I clearly can't be trusted so give me some task or request some piece of information that will make me trustworthy." The Knight was very unhappy at me opening my mouth but let me continue nonetheless, he did however, appear to have an idea. "Okay, if you can capture Count Dooku then that would help enough." The Jedi looked somewhat smug at his statement but my mouth was figuratively agape while Kenobi and Ahsoka had a slightly more literal agape mouth. "You… do you even think before you talk sometimes? You literally just informed him that you won't let him assist in our war or go to the front lines and then your suggestion literally involves him doing that, or us letting him go I suppose, how is that supposed to resolve everything?" Anakin rapidly stepped back on his words. "I meant he would be followed by us, we would keep an eye on him while we engage with Count Dooku at some point in the future and get him to fight." It felt a little spun together at the last moment but I think that is how Anakin works, flying by instinct mostly, not a bad way to live but a little dangerous with all the power he holds, especially as his alignment is somewhat unstable at the moment. "That sounds fine by me, feel free to keep me locked up as much as you want, provided I am on the front line, though I would appreciate the chance to fight, if not this Count Dooku then someone or something else." I look forward to finding this Sith, I would like a chance to actually fight something, it's been entirely too stifling up to this point.

The republic war effort up this point seemed average enough, they won some they lost some, on the whole they seemed to be doing better than the Seperatists who lacked in a significant number of ways, their command structure was made up of highly intelligent robots that were highly unintelligent, almost comically so, why would they make the robots so capable of being intelligent and fill them with nothing but fluff and the ability to make useless remarks, this was… odd, something was off and the Jedi were too close to the conflict to notice it seems. "Wars of my time were brutal, assassinations were common on both sides and Jedi had much less hesitation to kill an enemy who was unrepentant, the droids are simply all the working parts of an army, have you tried assassinating their designers?" Kenobi who had just finished ordering his commander, a clone named Cody, to secure a landing position answered, "I don't suppose telling you that the order of the Jedi is one that strives for peace and general non-violence would convince you would it?" I shake my head and he follows up, "And generally we frown on assassination due to the implications of there being no chance for repentance." I just stared at him for a short time, mildly depressed at the thought of such a useless group of Jedi. "Well, okay, but I would truly suggest some traditional assassination, I could even do it, no need to dirty your hands, it really would make things easier, also, if you keep playing by these easy to work with rules your enemies are going to take advantage of them more than once, for instance, who is this Asaji Ventress? Did I get that right? She has been in your grasp how many times now? Pity should never be given to a Sith, myself included." Kenobi waved off my remarks and headed over to a com station. "Well, I'll give you the word as soon as we arrive somewhere you can assist us." With that I was left in my ever so enjoyable cell, to, ideally, not destroy and cause general panic.

~Ahsoka POV~

While the double Sith wasn't all that mean to anyone and was even kinda funny it was still rather unnerving knowing that he could kill any one of us on the ship if he felt like it, with no qualms about the act either. Him being a Sith Sith, which is incredibly funny every time I thinkabout it, A Sith race, raised as a Sith, even I can get confused at my own wordplay. A gruff voice rolled out from nearby under a ship, "Hey Snips, get over here, this Sith is not gonna get a stock ship if I can help it and I need you to get me every type and grade of tracking beacon you can find." My master is… mildly paranoid about Belisaere but he values those around him so much that I'm not surprised he feels extra uncomfortable about an unexpected, dangerous cog in his tight life. "I really don't see why you need to put so many different failsafe measures on his ship, it already has the built in tracking beacon and can be shut down remotely, what is he gonna do, make a hyper jump from the atmosphere? You just can't believe someone fits outside your neatly designated stereotypes can you?" I taunted him lightly, expecting him to continue the banter we always had. "I don't expect you to understand Snips, the Dark side is not… you should never mess with the Dark side, it can haunt you, hurt you deeper than you can ever know, and he is the embodiment of this danger, don't get close to him without me or Obi Wan around." Anakin looked almost… sad, he looked like he was remembering something he would rather forget, but I knew that this Sith was okay, how am I gonna get it across to Anakin when he already has his mind made up? "Okay, well, if you really don't want me to then I guess I'll go chat with Master Kenobi." I don't really like disobeying my Master but sometimes it just feels like I really need to, I'm hoping this isn't one of the times I regret it afterwards.

I made my way back to the cell of Belisaere hoping to surprise him but as soon as I rounded the corner I found him staring directly at the entrance. "Shoot, aren't you ever going to lie down? I can't sneak up on you if you stare at the force field all day, by the way, what's running through your head right now?" I noticed that he looked up at me and slightly tilted his head like he was contemplating whether it was worth it to talk to me. "I am not technically supposed to meditate as a Sith so I find if I spend too much time meditating my link to the Dark side fades, from a Jedi perspective this would be a highly positive trait, but for a Sith this is a trait that should be eliminated." He was unhappy about not being angry, hateful and… angry all the time? "That sounds like the dumbest thing, why don't you just let go of the Dark Side and join the Jedi for real? It can't be that bad, I mean, you already seem like a nice guy and you're pretty strong too, why do you want to be all angry all the time?" It seemed simple to me, but maybe he had a reason, though I can't imagine any reason to not want to join the Jedi, I mean, we are pretty much the best thing ever after all. "You do not understand how the Dark Side works at all. The Dark Side claims you, it designates you as one of its own and you are drawn to drown in your emotions, let them overwhelm you so that you might become closer to the Force, the Jedi are very similar, you are told to let go, to lose yourselves in life so that you might become closer to the Force, I deny both of these and have determined that I will use the Force as I see fit. This method is not, and shall never be, perfect, the Dark Side is strong in me, my race is naturally tuned to the Dark Side after all." He lectured me about the specifics of the Dark Side and why the extremes of both Light and Dark are no better than eachother until he finally got near the end and seemed to talk in a more somber tone. "If I choose to let go of the Dark Side… I will become weak, I am only trained in the Dark Side, I do not know how to use techniques of the Light Side, in the end I would become an average knight and would lose my great power, and that terrifies me for a different reason, I would forgive them, and I can never do that, no matter how much I forget, it will come back when I stop distracting myself, she is gone and will not return." He closed his eyes and his mouth became a grimace while I felt the Dark Side deepening in the room so much it started to get to me, I saw a young Twi'Lek with a slave collar on in a cage and what looked like Belisaere walking up to it and letting her out… Then I felt an anger inside me, I became angry at… what was I angry at? But the anger became too great and the world faded to black.

Thanks for reading Chapter 4, with the introductions out of the way, Belisaere is right on the edge of a war, how will a Light Side Sith work in a war zone, will he get shot in the back, will the Jedi even trust him enough to let him in the battle? Or will he get dragged in another way entirely? NEXT TIME ON DRAGO… close 'nuff. See ya next time.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Duel

I did not expect them to put the ship I was on in any danger, it seems in my mind a ship with a dangerous or important prisoner should not be on the front lines, but here I am feeling the ship shake beneath me from what I can only assume to be explosions. "Sergeant! I would appreciate to know what is going on, I do not appreciate having to assume what is causing the explosions which may end my life." I called out to the clone on the other side of the force field hoping some of my questions might be answered. The occasional explosion was not interrupted by speech however, evidently the clones were informed to not talk to me. While sitting waiting for something or someone to come a loudspeaker piped up, "Sergeant, we need you to get the Sith out of the cell, please inform him that should any of you be harmed in any way there will be significant repercussions, then please bring him to the bridge post-haste." Evidently I am wanted.

With the bridge rapidly approaching I found myself looking about at the personnel and found, to my surprise, that the ship was not exclusively stocked with clones and there were a large number of officers who sported a refreshingly different face including a few rather exceptionally crafted females about, but no, that wouldn't do, just because my wife wasn't… ah, there I go again. With my thoughts drawn to my wife again my mood was immediately destroyed and all that effort I had spent on resetting my emotional state was instantly lost, this would not do, the Jedi do not take well to angry Sith on their bridges, especially after I may have exposed a young Padawan to the Dark Side in a rather profound way. The bridge doors open and I see Kenobi standing talking to a fuming Anakin. "Hello Jedi, I can't help but notice our ship appears to be under attack, what would you have your prisoner do?" I could almost feel the sarcasm dripping off my words but I had no time to play nice, what with my emotions being haywire at the moment, the less they noticed I was off kilter the better. Anakin turned to me, clearly infuriated, "I didn't barge into your cell and cut you to pieces for one reason, Kenobi told me to settle this civilly after I had calmed down, which I have succeeded enough at to feel that I can calmly state, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY PADAWAN?!" He seemed upset, perhaps I might be as well if some Sith knocked my Apprentice Jaesa unconscious, but, well, I really have to wonder why he is so bothered. "And why does that bother you so much? I got a little angry and she got caught in the aftereffects, did something else happen?" He looked at me suspiciously and then stated, "Ahsoka has been acting strangely since the incident and I expect you had something to do with it." This did not feel that simple at all, there must be more to it than that, the Padawan must have been hit pretty hard by the Dark Side, but I did not expect her to be susceptible to it, but I suppose with a Master like Anakin here she would not have developed a particularly effective resilience to the Dark Side. "Anakin, as I have said before, I would like a moment to speak to you personally, this talk might also resolve your issues with Ahsoka as well." Kenobi looked at me quizzically but then glanced at Anakin evidently giving him the decision, Anakin, only too happy to have some alone time with me evidently agreed wholeheartedly, "Sure, lets just go down to the training room." Evidently he had a very different idea of how our talk would go. "Kenobi, for the purpose of it not appearing that I have done anything and keeping him from directly trying to kill me would you mind staying nearby, I would appreciate you not eavesdropping though." He nodded and headed off with us.

~Ahsoka POV~

Geez my head hurts, why does it hurt so freakin much? And what the hell is this droid doing? "You better stop poking me right now tin can, I'm not in a great mood right now." The medical droid ceased its attempts to draw blood I think and instead hurried out of the room. It is killing me, this aching, I need to find Master or… anything to get this ache out of my head, why am I here though? I thought I was down in the hangar with Master or… shoot, I must have passed out again, this is the second time after I talked to that Sith, maybe he knows how to stop this incessant chatter and infuriating pain… I'll check with him then.

"What do you mean Master is gonna fight the Sith? Weren't we kinda allies-ish? If it's about me I told him I'm mostly fine!" Master Kenobi cocked an eyebrow at me, "Mostly?" Okay, so he caught me, "I might have a little bit of a headache, but that's it! No reason to go all murder mode on the Sith." Again, Master Kenobi looked at me closely then sighed. "Anakin is no more blind than I am, he has seen you fall unconscious twice and can also see your conflicting emotions warring against themselves for what would appear to be no good reason, you do know that is how Sith tend to operate correct?" He… might have a point? Maybe, but I don't think all those emotions are all that weird, I mean the general anger obviously is out of place, but everything else is relatively in place, though a bit odd. I really need to calm down and maybe meditate.

Kenobi led me to a two way mirror on the other side of a padded room, looked a little like an insane room, but I've been trained in there often enough that I know it be a sparring room. "The Sith seemed very intent on not having me listen to their conversation, however, he was also determined to have me view this fight to prevent Anakin from doing anything to him." Why would Anakin need to fight him? Or for that matter why did the Sith need to talk to talk to Master at all anyway? "So what are they talking about then? Will Master kill the Sith? Well? What's happening?" Master Kenobi looked a little perturbed I think but he is good at hiding stuff so I'm not so sure, "Patience little one, we will know given time, let them resolve what they need to, and also, no they will not be killing eachother I am here to make sure of this I hope." He muttered the end a little bit with a little bit less confidence. Oh well, better watch the fireworks then. "Rip him to pieces Master! Tear him apart!" I made sure to express my confidence in the way I knew best.

~Belisaere POV~

I resolved my talk with Anakin and made sure he understood my point all in one simple argument fused with Saber duel. The simple statement is the best after all, "You are falling to the Dark Side aren't you." He was less than pleased with this statement, "How would a Sith have the presence of mind to realize such a thing? Also, no, I am dedicated to the Light Side, The Dark Side holds no temptation to me." That was… mostly bravado, though he did seem to wonder at my presence of mind. "I assure you that I have always been in tune with the Light Side, I suspect I would have made it as a Jedi and possibly a strong one, but the Dark Side was what I learned and channeling it is the only way I know how to manipulate the Force, think of it this way, even if it is incorrect, I channel the Light Side like you, into Dark Side techniques, the power source is different but the device doesn't really care about the input." A crude explanation but one that would probably get across to Anakin, though I did fail to mention a few things, like the fact that in order to use Dark Side techniques you must still use strong emotions, muting the Light Side further, basically combat tends to turn me closer into a normal Sith. "That does not explain you blasting my Padawan with a Dark Side power, she is somehow even more impatient, constantly irritated and downright mean for no reason, needless to say, that isn't normal!" So he wanted me to fix his Padawan, that's it. Well that was anti-climactic. "Got it, I can get right on that once you let me onto the battlefield, simple as that." He looked a little backed into a corner but he still growled at me, "You duel me and I'll determine yes or no."

The duel began with me immediately dampening the mood, "I would love to duel you, but it would need to be barehanded, you haven't given me my Lightsaber back yet." His glare looked a little embarrassed for a moment until he opened the door and asked Kenobi for my Lightsaber, we sat in an awkward silence for a bit until the door opened again and Ahsoka walked in. "Hey, got your Lightsaber here, by the way, do you want me to help kill him Skyguy?" That was amusing, she was acting a little more… blunt than she had been before, my point of reference is a little small but I had not judged her to be originally like this. "Thank you, I expect we will not need your assistance but if you would like to fight me, feel free to at any time, it will be a good lesson I'm sure." She made a fake smile then dropped a Lightsaber just before I could get it from her, yes, definitely vindictive. I turned to Anakin and ignited the Lightsaber, we both stared at eachother then I struck at his leg, the parry was incredibly fast and my head became immediately in danger of being decapitated, "Okay, then I will need to take you seriously I see." 15 minutes later I found myself dripping in sweat with a series of light burns on my shoulders and legs where the blade skimmed my skin after burning through the clothing, Anakin was clearly my better in single Lightsaber combat, it would not be surprising to consider him a master with the Lightsaber. Single Lightsaber combat had never really been my favorite style, I preferred two blades, defense and offense were so much more effective that way, but I would not want to appear to be too great a threat to Anakin or he might hold me back from the war. After another 5 minutes he had thoroughly beaten me down, I had barely landed 2 glancing blows but I was more frustrated in that I realized I could not use the Force itself in combat, Anakin displayed a significant lack of mid combat Force use, the few small Force combat techniques I put in he was unable to respond to and he did not use anything other than a simple force push rarely. With the pieces of information from the archives I had learned combined with the lack of Force combat, I realized that Force combat was effectively a lost style, I could not reveal something so important to the Jedi then. I felt some small pleasure at the realization that even if he was far superior in single Lightsaber combat I had some tricks up my sleeve that would help me should the need arise.

While I sat against the wall gasping for air Anakin walked up to me with the Lightsaber still active, with a swish the weapon swung to a position right in front of my throat. "I am stronger, isn't that what Sith acknowledge? Strength? I will destroy you if you do anything against the Jedi or Republic, but I will allow you to join us on the battlefield." As he was talking I was readying a powerful Force push into a Force choke until he made it clear he was not executing me and I let my anger subside. "Very well Jedi, I will follow your choices and your lead, but do not do that again, I am not appreciative of having my life in another's hand." He gave me a sneer like smile and walked out of the room. "That went well, I think I have one less problem to deal with now… Ah, he dodged my question about the Dark Side." A subtle grin played out on my face as I walked from the room.

Ahsoka always seemed to be at the edge of the exact same situation as Anakin and I always wanted to see her be just generally more scary, though Belisaere could take advantage of an apprentice like Ahsoka in a very Sith Lord way, he would be unlikely to create a Dark Jedi. I don't like Dark Jedi, whereas a Light Sith is basically a strong nice guy who doesn't shy away from the tougher stuff, whereas a Dark Jedi is basically just a horrible person. Basically if he wanted to turn Ahsoka to the Dark Side he wouldn't be half-assed about it. I wonder how the Emperor will feel about a new powerful Sith with no strings attached hitting the field in his puppet show?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Show of Force

Anakin seemed to be very pleased to show off his own fighter and inform me that I was assigned a personal fighter, which I was not allowed to use yet. An excellent snub, I would commend him if I did not feel the urge to topple his fighter on top of him, ideally ending further irritation. Instead of a personal fighter I was assigned to assist a clone squadron, as little more than a support trooper, they even gave me grenades and a rifle and attempted to give me clone armor, Anakin really does have a knack at being infuriating. Unfortunately, after testing the clone armor I realized that it was technically superior to my personal armor, I begrudgingly wore it as I did not favor the idea of looking like a Dark Lord on a battlefield with a significant number of Jedi present, but I did keep on me multiple pieces of technology. I had never been able to use it with any practicality, but a Force Focus was incredibly efficient at focusing a Force channel and the personal shield generators I had seen thus far were pathetic, I think personal shield generators did not survive from my era. And finally I took with me every single Lightsaber that I owned, even two Twinsabers, which I personally find incredibly awkward to wield and attached each Lightsaber to the cloak I wore with the clone armor to at least set me apart somewhat.

The loudspeaker yelling for everyone to get ready to dirty their boots did get my blood pumping a little, the speaker knew what they were doing while they inspired the troops. "Boys, per the usual, we are the only ones capable of getting things done, the only ones with the sheer tenacity to even look at the clankers and not see clattering death machines, instead, what do we see? We see piles of scrap metal being ever so kindly provided to us by our Seperatist friends, why, if they didn't supply us with all this metal we might run out of guns and ships to keep shooting them with! So let's go do the Republic and these nice little Jedi a favor and go grind us up some Clankers!" If I had fought the 'Clankers' before I'm sure I would have felt inspired in addition to excited. As I approached the dropship I had been assigned to a clone with some markings on him approaches me. "GOOD JPB GETTING NON-REGULATION GEAR SHINY, BUT THAT GEAR ISN'T LIKELY TO SURVICE THE SURFACE, I'M SERGEANT GOTO AND IT'S GOOD TO MEET YOU, WE'LL GO OVER INTRODUCTIONS ON THE DROPSHIP, DON'T WANNA MISS OUR FLIGHT!" I have revised my previous feelings, I am positive if given the chance I will choke Anakin, maybe not kill him, but he is getting choked.

"Alright you lot, this is our only Shiny, I'd like to think this means we're good enough that we don't need bolstering, and I'd be right! You all know the death count in our squad is nearly the lowest there is, with that in mind, lets welcome the newest member of our merry band!" The sergeant looked at me expectantly as if thinking I would introduce myself or give my name, but weren't they all clones? I feel like they would notice if my voice were different, though they all have different shades of skin, I think red might stand out and I can't just Force choke myself and make them think I got my throat slit at one point or something, they might ask to look, given the number of scars these men are carrying and the way they show them off to eachother. "Well, looks like we got a shy one, but I expect he'll warm to us eventually, just don't get blown up by a tank like the last guy! Also, these are the guys who matter! Rain! He's artillery, or more like heavy weapons guy! if ya see a tank, yell at him! doc! he hates to be called that so do it every occasion! something about there being way too many clones with the name doc! he does what you think he does! peeper! yet another guy who doesn't like being called by his name! but i wouldn't call him that until you're more familiar with him! he might try to slit your throat! He's our resident sniper and also doesn't talk much! i'm sure you'll get along!" at this point I could feel through the helmet that my ears must be bleeding, the man didn't have another volume aside from loud and louder, also, what was I supposed to call the sniper if I shouldn't call him by his name? And what about the other 7 squad members? Their squad supposedly has a low casualty rate so each of these men should be important or highly skilled, this is entirely too much effort, if I didn't need to get close to the Jedi to look at both sides of this conflict I would seriously consider yelling at them that I'm a Sith and then leave.

As we approached the drop zone I could feel the ship being tossed about by the storm were evidently dropping into and the anti-air fire from the ground. Almost immediately after dropping under the cloud cover the Force warned me of disaster imminent, I quickly close my eyes and tilt the ship to the side, while a shell explodes next to us and with its collateral damage the ship begins careening towards the surface. "AW SHIT BOYS THERE GOES THE PILOT AGAIN! EVERYONE! A MOMENT IN MEMORY OF PILOT NUMBER 47! MAY HE REST EASY WITH HIS OTHER DECEASED BRETHREN! …AND THAT'S ENOUGH TIME ON THAT! EVERYONE LETS LAND WHERE THEY DON'T WANT US! EVERYONE JUMP!" With that the entire squad moved to one side, not very hard considering the G force was basically forcing them all to that side and the emergency lever got pulled and they all jumped. With my squad suddenly gone I realized that the ship was moving awkwardly, as if to stabilize itself, I opened the pilot's door and saw that the pilot was still completely alive, though he was frequently coughing, perhaps blood. "Well, everyone already jumped but if you don't mind, I would like to land on the ground via normal means." I grabbed a stim from the on ship med pack and gave it to him, he grunted as the stim's effects kicked in, "Thanks for that, I'll get you in with the squad, give me a holler any time you need air support or a pickup, the name's Grin." I can only assume Grin gave me a trademark grin as he pointed his helmet behind me, the ground rapidly closing. "Thanks Grin, I'll keep that in mind." He looked at me for a moment longer, perhaps wondering about my voice, but he didn't say anything, perhaps my voice is close enough through the helmet to not be noticeably different.

Immediately after the dropship got close enough to the ground I jumped out and looked for my squad. After looking about for a bit I noticed a familiar helmet appear above the thousands of clone troopers for a moment and headed towards the front lines. The trademark military voice resounded over the slope as I got close, "YOU CALL THAT BREAKING MY SPINE?! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO BREAK A SPINE!" I felt like that phrase was familiar then saw the squad surrounded by battledroids almost completely, they were so far out of the front line that they only had allies behind them and nowhere else. "FORWARD! WE CAN'T LOSE MOMENTUM EVER! IF WE BREAK THROUGH THEN THE BOYS BEHIND US WILL GET TO HAVE A NICE LEISURELY STROLL AFTER US! A VACATION SORELY NEEDED I'M SURE!" The man was clearly wounded and had already lost 2 clones, so much for lowest casualty rate, but I should help them. The droids won't be able to transmit anything if I destroy them too fast and the clones will just think I'm an undercover Jedi or something. The cloak billows as I grab the blue Lightsabers and ignite them, this could probably get my blood pumping.

After the battle had been going on for about 4 hours I realized that the droids just simply didn't end, they were ever replenishing their numbers, this realization made me look to the Sergeant who had since developed a slightly different personality in my presence. "Sergeant, I need to get to the back lines of the enemy, is there any way to do this without punching through their entire army?" The clone looked at me, "Well, the battle is starting to go against us, if we hunkered down somewhere nice and hidden the front lines would pass us by and our opposition would decrease in quantity, though quality would go up in that case, what with super battle droids, more tanks and droideka." That didn't matter to me, their quality was always at minimum regardless of what they were anyway, "Let's do that Sergeant, find me a place, I'll need the squad to be along as well so make it a good enough location for all of us to be unobserved."

15 minutes later I found myself in a cave packed in with 8 other sweaty, irritable and hostile clones, none of them appreciated my plan as it got them out of the action as well as had them sitting in a cave hiding, not the most honorable way to die should the cave collapse or we're found. "Off the toe…" growled Peeper to guy with the full arm blast marking on his armor, he shuffled only to cause another remark from the person he shuffled into. The Sergeant stayed at the entrance with a scanner checking the surroundings, "Okay then it looks like it's working, they'll be passing by us but as long as we dadon't set off any seismic sensors we should be good, now we just wait, only about… 3 hours?" Great, 3 hours like this…

The hours could not have taken longer to pass, but we were finally behind their lines, I swooshed out my cape and then drew my Lightsabers and ran out of the cave without care for the ones behind me, they would follow my trail of carnage. The first super battle droid I came across almost impressed me, until I saw that it was equally inaccurate to the normal battle droids and cut it is half with only the slightest more effort than a normal battle droid. The following minutes were spent sprinting through the enemy line using the confusion of the battlefield which somehow seemed to affect the droids and made it to a small fortress with a factory around it. The cliff side was steep but a set of steep stairs ran up the side criss-crossing the distance. "Hey troops, get up that cliff, I'll clear the top!" I quickly left the clones behind and sprinted up the cliff, bounding up the stairs as fast as possible. At the top of the cliff I could feel the Dark Side in abundance and looked toward a large door that was slowly opening. A tall older man stepped out from the doors and began walking towards me while hailing me. "It has been so long since I have felt an aura of Darkness on par with my Master's, would you care to tell me who you are? I have been curious since I felt a disturbance in the Force these weeks ago." The man was clearly well tuned to the Dark Side but he was oddly inattentive to small details which I would expect would tip him off as to who I am. "And are you Count Dooku? I have heard much about you! A few ill rumors, but I'm sure nothing you couldn't deny or prove false, but then again that's not really my job, I'm more of a tool at the moment, not really designed to question my goal. Anyway, I will really need to fight you to see if I should ally or otherwise with you, don't get too wound up on it, I don't plan on killing you anyway, I just need to see if you're strong, think of it as my sign up fee." I finished my sentence just after the clones arrived, they definitely heard, "Commander? What is going on?" Yeah… definitely heard.

Hello all, I just made it in time before my birthday ended, I'll make this quick cuz I have 30 seconds to put it in to make the time, night all!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Pull of the Dark Side

The idea that one apprentice at a time would strengthen the Sith was laughable when I heard it from the Jedi but Count Dooku was clearly displaying the strengths of this new system with each strike of his Lightsaber. When I backed up he jumped to me and when I pressed the attack he gave just enough ground to mess with my momentum, As I blocked a quick pommel he struck me with the Force and almost knocked me off the edge. "Is that all that this generation of Force users know how to do? A clunky Force push mid combat? As of yet you have shown me nothing I have not already seen amongst the Jedi, nothing unique or powerful, you are a skilled wielder of a Lightsaber, but that is all, the Jedi I expect that of, they never did much of anything unique, but the Sith should wield the Force as they see fit!" My statement clearly agitated the man and his mood further darkened, "I suppose that would be an effective insult if it weren't for the fact that this pathetic display is still overpowering you, I do not need an ally who is so useless, begone!" This time he seemed much more serious and flung me off the cliff, I immediately leapt back at him, jumping off seemingly nothing, Dooku seemed very surprised by this but then put out his hand in a choking motion which I called upon the Force to immediately break free from and landed next to him the droids near him took this as a little too much danger and advanced on me with what appears to be battlestaves while Dooku began retreating, "I did enjoy our little fight but I'll have my droids keep you company for now, I look forward to see where you go from now on." He said as he started walking away. With the droids advancing on me and the pathetic Sith retreating from me I couldn't believe it, nothing had changed among the Sith, nothing! "YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT!" I Force screamed out then smashed the ground knocking all the droids around me over and charge after him, I cloak myself in the Force feeling the familiar pain of this particular cloak and then sweep his feet, Dooku jumps back to avoid the strike then swings at me, I smile for a moment and open my arms to his attack, he seems to hesitate at my actions but then steels himself and strikes me across the chest.

As we both stand there for a moment I hear the clones behind me gasp and remember that they were listening and were likely going to report everything they heard today, additionally I hear Dooku grunt in pain as he realizes that a deep cut has opened up on his chest and his off hand is no longer attached. The confused eyes of the man slowly turn to rage, "What trickery is this? My strike should have cleaved you in two!" His anger was reasonable, the Jedi would likely not have understood either. "I have no intention of telling you what I did, as I plan to keep you alive. Sergeant! Get over here!" The clone shook himself and ran over to me. "What is it Commander?" I looked towards the man and gestured toward Doc as well, "Keep the Count alive, I will be nearby, please inform me if he does something against you, I will be sure to punish him appropriately." I then Force pull Dooku's Lightsaber from his slackened hand as he slipped out of consciousness. He would likely never find out what I did, I created a cloak of the Force and covered myself with it, the Dark Side of the Force is very clever in some ways, the cloak rebounds injury onto the other that would have been inflicted, it also protects me while it's up, and as he left himself open to perform that lethal strike I cut his hand off, evidently I must keep these Force techniques secret.

"Command, I need a pickup from behind enemy lines, while difficult, I'm sure the reward is worth it, I've captured Count Dooku." I radioed in my position as I did not feel like fighting my way back through the droids. "Your position has a shield generator near it, if you can destroy it we can do better than send a dropship to you, we can bring the fleet." Command responded. I looked about and went over to the sergeant, "would you be able to tell a shield generator if we found one? There is one nearby." He looked at me for a moment, "I would be able to pick it out of a crowd, I suspect you would be able to as well, they aren't that subtle, its likely inside the building." I immediately ran inside and started checking the small fortress after telling the clones to look through for a shield generator and destroy it, after running to the back and up a few stairs I found a large humming machine shooting a beam into the sky, the sergeant was not kidding, it is obvious, I immediately crushed it with the Force while retreating, expecting an explosion. Just like everything else it seems, it exploded.

As I stood out on the large courtyard with the clones holding the perimeter I reactivated the battlestave droids one by one and fought with each one then crushed them after getting irritated at their lack of performance, they were designed to fight a single Lightsaber wielder it seemed, not a dual wielder and they pissed me off further the more I fought them until I wasn't sure I wouldn't start cutting up the clones, I really need to stop. The drop ship arrived after a few more minutes and I had finally managed to calm down somewhat, the Jedi would probably not appreciate the Dark Side flowing off me but the clones wouldn't care much.

After the rather uneventful dropship ride, minus the clones glares boring holes into Count Dooku and the obligatory AA fire, I arrived back on the command vessel. Almost immediately I sense frustration bordering on anger from outside the blast doors, as they open I see Anakin with his arms crossed on the other side. "I'm not sure which makes me more irritated, you ignoring the front lines to go off on wild goose chase or that you captured Dooku that easily. For the moment I'm going to welcome you into the war room to give us the exact details." He seemed perturbed but his anger mellowed out as he talked, perhaps he was just irritated I took down a longtime rival so easily, though I'm going to refrain from mentioning he would have killed me if not for my Force techniques.

As I walked in the room Kenobi looked up and nodded at me and I felt a pair of eyes boring into my side from an irritable looking Togruta, "And how is your bout with the Dark Side going Padawan? I could teach you how to embrace the Dark Side then control it if you want, being a wielder of the Light Side and the Dark Side is nothing to be looked down on." She turned her head away then walked to the opposite side of the room and sat in chair. Kenobi looked at me disapprovingly, "I would appreciate if you didn't attempt to convert Jedi right in front of a Jedi Master, or preferably, if you didn't attempt to convert Jedi at all, now please give your report." Report, right, well better get this over with.

My cell is feeling almost comfortable by now, I wish I didn't have to worry about people coming in at all hours of the day and night to bother me for whatever reason, but so far, the cot has been well furbished. The first guest of the night happens to be the now perpetually irritable Ahsoka Tano, wonderful, "How can I help you? Are you following up on my offer for the Dark Side? You do know you'll become strong enough to protect everyone around you and the Republic right? You're not very strong right now after all." The required Sith intro to an impressionable Jedi, no I should probably be changing that in the future, Old habits die hard I suppose.

"I have no intention of joining the Dark Side, you're all backstabbers and liars anyway, how could you trust someone who you know is going to kill you just to get a scrap of power?" Ahsoka's argument was, sadly sound and valid. "Little Padawan, I don't expect you to understand why the Dark Side does what it does, but I do expect you to be able to differentiate from those who have lost themselves in the Dark and those who use it to their own ends, and further than that, I would appreciate you also not categorizing me with the backstabbers of the Dark Council!" I could feel my irritation rapidly rising and didn't feel much reason to curtail it, she angered me and had a Force Field guarding her, if she thought she could keep going and I wouldn't retaliate, it would be her loss. "I think I would like to take you up on your previous offer, you said you were available to duel at any time? Well I think I want to beat the red right out of you!" This girl was going to get herself killed, she had no common sense, the Dark Side was playing with her as if a toy and she barely realized it, why were the Jedi not putting more worry into this? At that moment Ahsoka disabled the shields and activated her Lightsaber, this was to be an impromptu duel it seems, one without me having a Lightsaber.

~o~

Finally got my charger back AND my finals week is over, time for some story time submerging, As I mentioned before, I really don't like Dark Jedi so I don't want Ahsoka to be sitting on the edge for much longer, though with her own being warring with herself she isn't likely to fix this without help from your local friendly Jedi Master, cuz Anakin can't help much here, he's practically a Dark Jedi himself. This one will be short as it is an in between step.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Depth of the Light

Ahsoka's Lightsaber came down next to my head burning the cot and leaving an uncomfortable sizzling feeling on my left ear, with the second Lightsaber of her's coming to life it was time to leave or I would be forced to explain why an unconscious Padawan was found in my cell with a knockout injury, where the hell were the guards? Exiting the room I looked at Ahsoka seeing her eyes fading out of their normal hues to a slightly more yellow-gold, that was a good first sign of a healthy Sith, one which distressed me even further, Anakin would likely attempt to kill me also should he see his padawan like this, she needed to learn how to tame the Dark Side, but not here, not now, for now she needed a more swift cure, the Light Side.

~Ahsoka POV~

This… this is freakin ridiculous, I can't hit the stupid guy, why… why, why! He is a frigging Sith! He shouldn't be allowed to wander about a Jedi ship or battleground, this was my fight, where I would show off to Master that I'm good enough, better than every other Padawan, so why is he even here!? He is ruining everything! "Why… Won't you… Just Die! Everything is ruined now! I was gonna catch Dooku and Grievous and Ventress, All of them! And then I would become a Jedi Knight and show off to Master! But you came in and took over and possibly stopped the whole war with one battle you barely participated in!" For just a moment that stupid red Sith stopped and seemed to think about something, just long enough for me to score a hit on his back, a pretty deep cut too.

As I saw the Lightsaber cut across the Sith's back it felt like there was some sort of resistance pushing the Lightsaber back a bit, but not enough to prevent this deep of a gash. With my Lightsaber hanging at my side I saw that he had fallen over with the black-red of Heartblood coming from the gash and his body lightly convulsing. He… I… No, no that's… that's not what I meant, he should have been able to hold me off practically forever! I shouldn't even register on his danger scale, so why did he take that strike? "I… I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! Please don't die! If you do… I… I don't know what will happen, but I didn't mean it!" The tears started as I realized the scope of my failure this time, this was an ancient Force user who held secrets of the Dark Side that wasn't hostile, the knowledge he held alone made him important and I've killed him!

With his blood pooling on the ground I started looking around for anything to cover his wound and staunch the bleeding but the stupid halls were all metal everywhere, "Someone! Call a medic! Find a medical droid! Anything!" My cries echoed through the hallways and no one responded, my previous stupidity in sending the guards away finally biting me in the ass completely.

~Belisaere POV~

Ahsoka was so angry, and she was angry at me, I stole her chance in the light, her goal, what made her push forward. The deep distress I felt from her reminded me of myself after I found myself in the Clone Wars era, lost and with no purpose, her confusion echoed with me deeply and I realized that she was going to become lost in her emotions at this rate. With her Lightsaber swinging down at my back I decided to stand there and take the strike, likely greatly wounding me. I would preserve my life by making the blow shallower but she had been on the battlefield before, she would need to know the blow to be lethal, only once I knew her response to her fatal attack would I know my response.

The strike caused me to blank for a moment but when my mind regained its tentative grasp on its surroundings I heard a girl crying behind me, regretting her actions and calling for help. She would do fine, she can find the Light even in the Dark around her, I will teach her enough to know the Dark Side, but she will need to seek her own path in surviving as this new Sith, perhaps similar to me.

After lying on the cold grating for what felt like hours I could sense Kenobi rushing towards us and then concern covers his Force signature as he sees Ahsoka standing over the horribly wounded body of myself. "Ahsoka, what happened here? No, nevermind, tell me while we get him to the medical bay." His straight to the point question left her already fluctuating Force signature go even more haywire, but I suppose it's not really my problem now, whatever she tells the Jedi I can agree or refute once I wake up, it really does make one sleepy when blood leaves at such an extreme rate, though I am glad that the Force has given me techniques to indirectly deal with even this situation.

The bed was so much warmer than normal, though not much better in the rigidity department, nevertheless, I could feel the blood in my body again and the chill of death had left me.

"I swear, I didn't know for sure, I thought he would just run around for a while, and I would feel better by making him sweat a bit. Maybe I would feel a little superior too…" The sound of excuses came from nearby, I must have only blanked out for a short time since this sounded like the first time she was recounting what happened.

"Perhaps, but I believe that the victim here should have the best answers." Kenobi's gaze burnt right through my attempt to fake sleep.

"Ahsoka is not the first to be affected negatively by a Sith, though this is due to the fact that your training leaves your Jedi ill prepared for their own emotions should they come in any new form. With that in mind I would appreciate the chance to have someone to pass some of my knowledge down to, incidentally this will help her to better understand how to resist the Dark Side." My offer being so blunt clearly confused the Jedi, I don't believe he was expecting me to ask him something so clearly against the Jedi order.

"Though I find your straightforwardness to be somewhat endearing, that does not change the fact that I cannot accept your conditions, and even the most cordial words cannot cover over the fact that what you have stated is the antithesis of our order." Kenobi's words grew a little cold, that wasn't good.

"I think I have earned some good graces from you, my capturing of one of the largest components of the Clone War is no small unimportant feat, please consider this before you make any choices." I realized I may have overstepped my bounds, this was something they would never consent to under normal, or even abnormal circumstances.

Kenobi glared at me for a time and then walked to the door, "I believe there is some merit to what you say, or at the very least, enough that I will confer with others on the matter." He stepped out of the room after gesturing to Ahsoka to follow him, this might be bad.

The moment the Jedi had left the room I remembered something that had been nagging me for a while, Sith aren't ever supposed to be comfortable, or relaxed, their very existence is chaos, but something had been… inhibiting me, calming me, preventing my rage from exploding and it wasn't from within me.

The response from Kenobi reminded me of all this and I realized that I hadn't dragged them into my pace, but the very opposite, I needed out, and now, but where? Where could I got that would accept a Dark Lord of the Sith into their ranks?

The answer, honestly, took me entirely too long to realize. I took a stroll to Dooku's holding cell and kept an eye out for any Jedi, they didn't need to know this conversation was happening too fast. The smirk that came to my lips as the Dark Side yet again assured me of its dominance was far more sinister than the clones who passed me understood.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Subjugation

I would never have considered this had Kenobi not opened my eyes, walking to the greatest enemy of the Republic's holding cell I wondered when the Jedi had enthralled me so, surely it couldn't have been intentional? The bumbling Jedi of this era seemed hardly threatening compared to the hardened war veterans of the past, even the order itself was smaller and overall had less reach. Perhaps it was that Yoda, the green one, he was the Grandmaster and no Grandmaster is ever weak.

What was the comparable scale of threat? An acolyte and a youngling are similar, then there is the padawan and apprentice. The knight and the lord as well as the Darth and the Master, perhaps the two councils, Jedi and Dark are on their own level as well, then finally there was the grandmaster and the Emperor.

Except, the Emperor was stronger than the Grandmaster, at least in my era the Grandmaster was, effectively, just an extremely skilled Jedi Master, whereas the emperor was more of a monster than man.

Therefore I could be considered to be at the level of the Grandmaster. "…This train of thought leaves me with no useful answers, I am no inquisitor, the comparison means nothing." I growled under my breath as I approached the room and made the clones guarding the room look at me uncomfortably.

"Move, I will speak to our prisoner now." I made my best intimidating glare and I may have tied the Force to the glare as the Clones left very quickly disregarding protocol. I may not be able to mind control people effectively, but I can terrify them into submission if I need to.

The door slid open with a hiss and yet more guards met me, they were certainly cautious, they were sent off in much the same way, though this time with an indicator that I had dealt with Dooku before, I could again. I then looked at the man sitting on the military cot so similar to my own. "What opinion do you have of your master, Sith? Is he worth dying for?" I let the question hang in the air for a moment.

"And what would you have me do? Betray him and suffer a fate far worse than death? You do not know my master which is the only reason you do not fear him, like a fool you consider yourself superior for having defeated me, but a single cog in the machine." He quietly went into a monologue while not even looking at me, the man clearly thought very little of me.

I lifted him up with the force and slammed him against the cell barrier, "Do you think I am so weak to be cowed by some man who has hidden himself for so long? The emperor I knew was not so weak a man, he more monster and did not burden himself with the petty squabbles of the many species about him." I glared into his eyes as I could feel his fury rising to combat my hold over him. I continued despite his rage and began choking him as well. "I do not consider your master a threat, he is a schemer and he cannot destroy me as long as I hold the secrets I do. Perhaps… Might you consider betraying your master and working with me? I would be willing to join your little menagerie of droids if I was in charge of it."

He looked at me but he could not break free to respond, I released the Force Choke and he immediately began insulting me again, can't have that. The Force responded to me well, this technique was not one normally used by warriors, but more often by those with the intentions to make the Force do the work for them, I am not one such person normally.

Dooku must have realized what was happening because he immediately lost his anger and fell to fear. "No, you wield the same power as my master, do not do this, I will join you… just… stop…" The Dark Crush was effective against minds and evidently this Sith had very little training to resist such attacks, perhaps his fall from the Jedi order prevented him from using some of their useful training.

I immediately pulled out a lightsaber and activated the food entry system, the slot opened and I placed the Lightsaber in it. "Be ready, we will leave soon, I have some goals that must be reached before our exit." He nodded as he received the Lightsaber and hid it on him.

I wandered the halls for a time and found myself at the Jedi's accommodations, I wandered in and found Anakin and Ahsoka yelling about something. "It doesn't matter what I do, I destroyed just as many droids as you in the last battle and you still think that I need protecting, I'm as good or better than you! Let me in on the mission!" Ahsoka hurt my ears a bit with the last statement but at least I got the gist of what she wanted.

"And I don't think you're acting nearly humble enough for me to even bother listening to you! I am you master and you will do what I say!" Anakin's argument felt weak but it didn't matter, he WAS the master and he could do whatever he felt like. Nevertheless I felt the need to interject. "I don't suppose you could let me moderate could you?"

The two looked at me and I saw immediate guilt in Ahsoka's eyes, while Anakin merely changed the target of his ire to me. "I don't think you have any right to be mediating anything on this ship, especially after you tried to take my padawan from me and turn her to the Dark Side!" He heard that it seems, Kenobi needs to shut his mouth.

"That is an excellent point and to be perfectly honest you are a terrible master, you need to sort out your own Dark Side problems first, find whatever is the root of the issue and resolve it, focus on a solution, put your effort into hope, or turn to the Dark Side and force others to solve the problem or let it fuel you, so many options." His eyes were glorious to watch, the confusion and fear were so evident I could taste it.

I, however, had a goal and it needed to be completed. "With that in mind I will be taking your padawan for the time being, don't worry too much I'll be back with her soon, she will have gotten her act together by then, be it Light Side or Dark." Anakin reacted to that and immediately lit his Lightsaber as did Ahsoka.

Anakin was clearly feeling good about this fight, he had beaten me before and he would do it again. "Big words, but now you show your true colors, it took too long, I was wanting to take you out the moment I saw you, now I have the excuse." He lunged at me while Ahsoka circled around me.

The first few seconds of the fight were nothing new, I got slowly beat up and never landed more than glancing blows on them. Then I heard Anakin's comm, "Anakin, we have the ruling, he is going back to Coruscant, we can't trust him if he is going to try and spread the Dark Side, no matter how polite he is about it." Perfect, I hate being correct sometimes.

After the announcement I cloaked myself in the Dark Side, using several layers, most of which were highly painful, and pulled out a second Lightsaber. Ahsoka was the first one out, I Force Choked her and left her dangling then pushed Anakin and leapt to his new location. The Force screamed out in much the same way I was as it was twisted to my use, after utilizing a few of the tricks I could think of Anakin was in no shape to do much of anything, let alone attempt to get up and fight me.

I walked over to Ahsoka who was eyeing me carefully, she must have instinctually felt the difference in power from my earlier display. "Ahsoka… did this really need to end this way? I offered to teach you so that you might understand what happened to you when you touched the Dark Side but the Jedi immediately take the worst assumption and even your master refuses to let you train with me due to how much stronger you would become, I do not seek to turn you, just show you how to utilize what you have found." I knew she would listen to my pleas to her ego, she would be able to protect those around her after all, what is more Jedi than that?

Ahsoka seemed torn, she looked at me and back to her master, "But, the Jedi Order is where I was raised, it's all I know. What do I do…" She fell to her knees, this was probably one of the most traumatic moments of her short life and the Dark Side was doing nothing but making her feel it more.

I walked over to her and put out my hand, "This is the first step to your new life, let us create a galaxy that will not destroy itself. Only the greatest of good will persevere covered in mud. Only by seeing everything, feeling everything and knowing everything can you hold yourself as a true Jedi and save your order." She looked up to me, I could feel her eyes boring into me, tears at the edges, ripping into my conscience and reminding me of Vette.

I walked over to Anakin and grabbed his Lightsaber, it came apart in my hands as I opened it up and removed the crystal. "This will be your reminder of your failure, remember my techniques with your body and become stronger, strong enough to stop me, you are far too weak." His blank eyes seemed to spark for a moment and I knew he had heard me as I left the room with Ahsoka behind me.

The soldiers about the ship had clearly not been informed of the situation as they let me move as I pleased about the ship. Once I arrived at the holding cells I had my plan ready to go and Dooku was integral to it.

I looked at my Padawan and knew she would have significant doubts about my upcoming choices. "Ahsoka, my intentions are to go to the Seperatists and effectively take over, while this will initially mean doing a significant amount of dirty work, once I'm in I will be able to steer them in a very different way. I do not expect you to understand all my decisions but for the time being you will need to trust me." She looked at me a little uncomfortably but nodded, it would probably take a little while before her quirky personality came back.

Dooku saw me come in and looked around and then at Ahsoka, "I take it there is a reason she is here?" He did not seem pleased by her presence and I could understand why, she was Jedi. "Don't worry so much, as I recall your opinion holds no weight on its own to me, give me facts or useful information or don't talk."

Dooku had proven himself to respond to power whereas Ahsoka responded to the promise of power, they would work together only due to myself holding their reins. "We're going, steel yourself, you are taking the vanguard should anyone question me." I opened the cell and immediately several clones ran in and saw the situation. "Sir! Can you please give me a reason the prisoner has been released without notification?" They clearly had this room under some form of security then.

I looked towards them and began to manipulate them as much as I could. "I am taking the Count to Kenobi and would appreciate some escorts if you wouldn't mind." The soldiers looked at their captain until he responded, "I will follow the requests of the commander, but I do not know of your rank sir therefore I will only defer to her orders." Fair enough.

I turned toward Ahsoka, "If you wouldn't mind Commander?" She looked at me and I saw a hint of deviant glee in her eyes. "Soldier, I heard the request as well, why do you think we were sent if not to contain him, clones certainly couldn't." She was aiming for accolades and she was going to get them from me.

"Do you have control over minds yet Ahsoka? If so now would be a notable time to do so, we need to be heading to the hangar not Kenobi." She looked up at me and then looked at the guard and was hesitant for a moment then her eyes let out a defiant gleam and she walked toward the guard getting right up next to him.

The stark contrast of the short color shocked girl against the white canvas of the clone armor towering over her was quite invigorating, like a portrait with life-like qualities. Her Lekku slid ever so slightly down her back as her head tilted up to look at her would-be adversary. "You will escort us to the hangar soldier." She waved her small hand in front of him.

The clone stood there for a while looking at her, I began to wonder if I would need to be cutting my way out when the clone spoke, "I will escort you to the hangar." I looked at Ahsoka, she seemed a little surprised but she was clearly excited about succeeding, I could hear her quietly whispering words of victory, but upon looking at Dooku I realized her reason for success, perhaps my apprentice's might not be at each other's throats too much, though I might be getting ahead of myself, Ahsoka is basically already my apprentice but Dooku will have the pride of being a fake Darth to get over.

On the way to the hangar we were glared at almost constantly and by us I mean 99% Dooku and 1% me, evidently there were a few who may have heard some things from the squad I was a part of during the battle. After getting most of the way there the intercom came alive with the announcement that, honestly, took far too long to come about.

"All hands, Dooku has escaped he may be aided by the unaffiliated Jedi Belisaere whom some of you may have seen about the ship, his allegiances were unknown up to this point but he had indicated his willingness to an alliance, this hope has been betrayed, additionally he has captured Jedi Ahsoka Tano. All hands they are likely headed to the hangar, be wary they will not be easily stopped!" That was a fine tale he spun, just an ounce of a lie and so many half-truths, though he may believe a few such as me capturing Ahsoka.

Our guard looked at us quizzically for a moment before they found themselves ran through by three Lightsabers from me and Dooku, Ahsoka looked shocked again, she was clearly not going to get used to us killing her allies while she does nothing about it. We then began the sprint for the hangar, the ships within would get us far enough that we could swap them out and create anonymity for ourselves but first we had to get one that wasn't just going to get shut down the moment we brought it up.

The moment the hangar opened we were in a tough shape, the hangar was filled with clones all aiming at the various entrances and the moment ours opened they all swiveled towards us. The resulting firestorm was hard to respond to, but I had ways of dealing with this. "Get to any ship that is either bounty hunter or smuggler, doesn't matter, just get a ship that isn't republic! I can keep them focused on me, Move!"

Dooku looked towards me somewhat sinisterly and I immediately turned to him and choked him, "You forget your place Dooku, I am superior to you and even a hail of fire will not make me weaker than you, you have your task, begone!" I slammed him to the deck and then turned back toward the incoming fire.

I had clearly startled Dooku as he did not expect me to literally ignore the lasers that were hitting me to deal with him but I had trained for many years with a fervor that was superior to that of my peers by no small margin, I had techniques he could not even dream of. Specifically I had sacrificed a significant portion of my life force to temporarily shroud myself in a self-willed barrier of the force, the barrier sought out every danger to me because it was me, no small price to pay, but when is the Dark Side ever cheap?

As the barrier weakened I prepared my lesser defenses and began screaming into the force. For the clones who were near me a deafening roar that pierced into their mind brought them to the ground and those away from me focused on me completely out of fear.

I decided that against this many focus was needed, not blinded rage. I put away my off-hand Lightsaber and pulled out a small device that looked similar to an ornate scroll case off of my belt and began focusing on it. The Dark Side runs off of two notable fuels for the Sith warrior caste, Focused Rage and Blinded Rage.

Blinded Rage tends toward the warriors, those that wish to make those in front of them dead via the simplest means. Focused Rage was the weapon of the Inquisitors and was for those who wished to bend the force to kill that thing in front of them with cleverness or superiority. I do not ridicule Focus, it just is too tiring for me, I prefer the adrenaline and blood madness. Nevertheless the Focused Rage is more capable in this instance.

The Force played against my fingertips, sparking outward, the sparks gradually increased, arcing to the metal deck. The painful shocks were a reminder that what I harnessed would kill me given the chance. As the electricity arced farther and farther the clones shots became more and more erratic until I no longer even needed a barrier to block them, my Lightsaber would do.

The lights flickered and the hangar darkened from more than just the lack of light, the Dark Side was present here and I was its conduit. A clone managed to get close to me with charred armor and skin and fell forward with a grenade in his fist, the Force warned me but then I realized that the Light Side was preventing me from throwing the grenade away.

Kenobi stood in the entrance I had just come from a grimace on his face as he struggled to keep me from destroying the clone and fling the grenade away. "It doesn't need to be like this Belisaere! The Sith may be opposed to the Light Side but you're different! We can work together to keep the Dark Side from overwhelming us all! Don't let the Dark Side control you!"

I felt as though he was talking to someone else but then again I had given him reason to consider me at least neutral to the Light Side. His words did not afflict my remaining consciousness with much doubt, the Dark Side whispered and held me tight, there was no reason to consider the words of someone so wrapped in blinding light.

The one thing that did pierce through though was the grenade exploding at my feet. The blast sent me reeling and propelled a multitude of fragments towards me, cutting deeply and leaving wounds Darth Malgus would have appreciated. The pain threatened to overwhelm even as it strengthened me, the Dark Side yet again offered me it's solution, but yet again I held back the smallest bit for some reason.

I then felt a tug from someone in the Force, A simple ship was flying toward me with a boarding ramp open, this was my cue to exit the stage for now. The ramp hit me like a truck, or more appropriately, a ship and I found myself very unceremoniously aboard my temporary refuge temporarily weakened in the Force but thankful nonetheless.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Old Home

The ship was performing well, but my piloting skills were rusty without my old pilot, Malavai Quinn. The pang of loss was constant but the slightly sharper prick of pain was more immediate and noticeable, Quinn was a loyal man, at the beginning it was loyalty to my old master and as I came to understand the man more and trusted him after his betrayal.

Nevertheless this unknown ship was somewhat underwhelming, even if it was performing amazing it didn't change that the ship itself was little more than a slight upgrade on a fighter, like an amped up gunship. The fact that it could jump at all was a lucky break it seems, though Ahsoka should have some piloting knowledge so perhaps it wasn't just luck.

After I made myself to the pilot's seats I found Dooku and Ahsoka metaphorically growling at eachother from the pilot and co-pilot seat. "And? Where did you put us? I don't appreciate being lost my Apprentices." Ahsoka looked startled at me and then her face fell as she started to realize the full implications of what she had done.

Dooku, however, looked enraged. "I am not your apprentice! I am your superior in every way, even in age I am your elder!" His argument was not hollow words, he ignited his Lightsaber and exited the pilot seat facing me.

I looked at him incredulously, "You think yourself my superior? Since when has age been the deciding factor of superiority amongst the Sith? Also, do you believe yourself capable of holding off that many Republic troops that were ambushing you? I should think not, now go to these coordinates, I have a task that needs completed there." Dooku did not look like he was going to drop the topic and made a sudden strike at my chest.

I am very glad I have not taught him any of my tricks yet, or he might have understood to attack me the moment I got on board the ship but the Force is never truly gone from me provided I am alive, my skills are not so easily taken by fatigue. The best example I can give is that the Force has different muscles and if I tire a muscle out I cannot use that muscle for a short time, I cannot truly explain what I do not understand personally though.

The Lightsaber struck my personal shield and went through but then the cabin was filled with a deafening sound as I blasted the Force outward knocking him away from me at the last moment. "I gave you a task didn't I?" The Dark Side was back again, despite having seemed to have abandoned me earlier it came flooding back due to my emotions flaring. Dooku was held in a Force Choke and was being shocked with Force Lightning as well, his eyes quickly rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness.

Ahsoka looked at me slightly panicked but turned toward the control panel, "Sir, I mean, Milord, this ship doesn't… I mean, could you give me the coordinates?" She stuttered so hard I was wondering if this was the same girl, she had been off kilter since she first touched the Dark Side from me I suspect. The coordinates didn't come readily, I was not constantly on Dromund Kaas but I did know the old coordinates of the location of the Imperial Fleet which was at least in system.

I realized afterwards that perhaps jumping in system along a route that was possibly shut down may have been an incredibly hazardous idea but as long as no one else was jumping to a similar location I should be fine. With the coordinates input I could only calm myself in preparation of anything I might see, though I still didn't know quite what to expect.

As the stars snapped back to their regular shape the end of the war truly hit me, what lay in front of me was a graveyard to the ambitions of the Sith and their Empire. Hundreds of ships floated aimlessly around a humongous central station, the ships were in various states of decay, but only the primary station and a few ships were in any way holding together, all the other ships were completely blown apart.

Ahsoka gasped out as she saw the ships, "This is immense! Is this the fleet of the old empire? If this were to come down on Coruscant I don't think the planet could survive, is this what you are looking for?" The girl was in awe at the sheer size of the fleet in front of her.

While amused at her expression I did need to set something straight, "The ships of this fleet are not all Imperial, there are a number of ships of our allies, such as the Chiss and Mandalorians, they were great allies in times of war, the Bounty Hunters and Agents of the two were indispensable, I can think of two who were of particular importance, I wonder what has happened to them." As I faded away to nostalgia Ahsoka brought us toward the primary station and docked us in an open bay.

After checking all the seals on my armor and attaching an oxygen pack on my back and Ahsokas I made my way out and headed towards the station proper. After I entered the station I headed towards the control room, the interior looked as though the Republic had decided that boarding the station was a better idea and had shot the place up. After crawling about the station for a while I finally arrived at the control room.

The controls were all in shutdown, the ship had been completely shut down by the end, whether this was due to the Republic taking the room and purging the survivors or the Empire deciding to make the battlefield more hazardous for its invaders I would likely never know. After flipping back online environmental controls in a sector near where we had stopped the ship we headed back to the ship.

In retrospect it was somewhat obvious, honestly I'm not sure what I was thinking, leaving Dooku on the ship by himself. The only thing I can think I did right was wiping the coordinates from the banks before I left, Dooku or his master might have some idea, but they wouldn't know how to get here specifically. Needless to say, Dooku had taken the ship and left, likely to return to his little rebellion and continue a war that was technically to my advantage now.

Ahsoka looked at me looking lost again, "What do we do? Are any of the ships here even operable after all this time?" The girl needed to start getting used to being unsettled because once my training started it would be happening just as often as it had over the last few days for her.

~Ahsoka POV~

The Sith is way too at home here, like way too much, he's walking around like he owns the place. But after messing with my head and making me wonder what's right and what's wrong I don't really wanna question him all that much. "So were we planning on getting a fighter or something from one of the bays and going…" I actually have no idea what his plans are but we can't go back to the Republic, back home.

After a few minutes we arrived at the central command station again but this time he started powering up more than just the life support. After inputting a significant number of codes into various terminals the room came to life. A door opened to the side of the room and a superiorly crafted droid walked out and began talking, "Station back online, good to see you Lord Wrath, this station is currently resetting vital systems after the Republic directly assaulted the interior lightly damaging multiple systems, please wait for… 86 hours for repairs to be complete.

Okay, the whole station was still in pretty good shape, but that didn't help us much yet. After looking at the droid for a few moments Master asked it a question, "Are there any ships still capable of FTL travel amongst the wreckages?" The droid's tinny voice immediately shot him down, "Sensors are not one of the active systems, please wait 86 hours for repairs to be completed." At least it was consistent.

"Where are we going now?" Master seemed to be in a very good mood and was lightly chuckling to himself while answering me, "The hangar bays held four notable weapons of the Empire aside from the regular ships, these are the ships of the Bounty Hunters deployed by the Empire, though honestly, those are likely to have been long gone, The Imperial Agents, which similarly are very likely to be in low numbers, and the two notable faction types of Sith, the Sith Inquisitors and the Sith Warriors."

After talking for what seemed like hours he seemed to finally calm down as we arrived at a hangar. Entering the hangar I saw what looked like the coolest possible mix between a freighter and a fighter, the ship was clearly Imperial and, while not as aerodynamic looking as most of the Republic ships were, it was space, no one cared.

Positively giddy Master walked up to the ship, "This is even better than I could have hoped, it's a Fury class and the best part is… it's hers." Something in the way he said that made my spine tingle and the air chill, a grudge was held in regards to this ship and I felt like I was going to be finding out whether I wanted to or not, whether this grudge was going to be settled.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Sphere of Ancient Knowledge

The ship was somewhat rundown considering the time it had been sitting, but after the oxygen had been reclaimed from the environment the decay had slowed to a stop. Getting the ship up and running would require getting some power into it before it could recharge itself, but otherwise it should be available as my personal ship soon.

I looked back toward Ahsoka, "This is the ship I need, and incidentally, the ship of the woman who orchestrated my presence in this time, or at least it is reasonable to assume so at this point."

The girl looked at me for a moment as if to ask a question but then looked down as if thinking, "So, who is this person then? Was she a strong person from your time? Was she a great Jedi who defeated you?" I suppose it would be reasonable to assume she was a Jedi since if I was defeated it would be easy to do whatever she wanted to me, but this IS her ship and it is inside the Imperial battle station so it is definitely not.

"The ship is of Imperial make, I know it may be reasonable to assume I was defeated at the hands of the Jedi, but I doubt anyone aside from the Jedi who slew the Emperor could have truly defeated me. I have no attachment to victory at all costs unlike some Sith who surrender to their emotions, I can choose to leave if I feel my life is at stake, though I did hear of another Jedi who might have been able to rival me, deaban or be, bea, beu… some odd name that eludes me, A councilor I believe.

The ship controls soon hummed to life after I pumped enough lightning into the power reserves to raise the dead, metaphorically of course, I hadn't actually tried to raise the dead yet. The ancient Sith was clever but I always figured she thought too hard on some things, I took a few guesses at the entrance passcode then settled with something I had heard her state a long time ago.

~Darth Nox POV~

Cold… Pain, reassuring, Light? No, Dark, but with Light, though muted, perhaps weak? Sound returns, hissing.

Air, I… right, myself, must find myself, where is it, or what, or… ratio… Golden ratio, no, too mundane, Pi? Yes, that will do 3.14159265…

~Belisaere POV~

The moment the door opened a shiver went through me as I felt the Dark Side sigh in relief, the sheer joy I could feel from the force was disorientating, Ahsoka was likewise affected, though she seemed to most likely feeling something more like dread.

This aura, was hauntingly familiar, but old, so old, and unfortunately, there were very few Dark Side beings that would be likely to live to get an aura so old that also knew of this graveyard, and even more so, knew of this ship and could get in without having to break in, my chance had come.

The ship was laid out almost the exact same as my Fury class ship, with a few modifications to it, perhaps personal preference. But in what I recalled as the conference room a malicious aura was flowing out, pulsing, though the presence did not seem aware of anything and was acting as though it was waking up.

I realized the urgency, "Ahsoka, start the ship up now! I'm taking care of the problem!" I ran toward the room igniting my dual Lightsabers and calling the Force to me in every way I knew to strengthen myself.

The room was changing my perceptions, the walls were not metal but bleeding flesh and the floor pulsated in tune with the screams of the damned coming from all around me, the Dark Side was somehow corrupted here, if that made any sense to a Dark Side user.

"Tainted and impure, beneath our notice, yet still you trample here and disturb our slumber, get out or the Light that clings to you will not save you!" A voice made of metal and bone pierced me and I saw several Force spirits partially in the walls staring at me with their translucent masks.

The room was against everything that I was, even the Dark Side that festered in me was screaming to leave lest I be destroyed. But in front of me, at the other end of the room, was my target, a large capsule with frost around it, at least I assumed it should have been frost, the red color of the room tinted everything into its somber undertones.

I walked forward, hearing my feet squelch on the flesh-like floor and the voices becoming louder, then the first lightning bolt hit me. The bolt struck me with all the force a real Sith would put forward, despite my mastery and durability, the bolt still had some punch and I could feel it, after that the lightning came all at one from every direction, constant streams of agonizing torture made every step impossible.

Halfway through I could no longer take it, this lightning was destroying me, the Force came to me as I blasted outward with pure energy, the walls turned to normal for a moment and even the floor returned to its former grey steel look, but the ghosts were recovering rapidly. I ran to the capsule, activated my Lightsabers and stabbed them both through the capsule.

For a moment nothing happened, the room was still turning back to its nightmarish tone and I stood still with both Lightsabers in the now coffin. Then the voices suddenly stopped and the corrupted presence disappeared as the capsule made a hissing sound of the atmosphere venting from the holes I had made.

But the hissing sound rapidly started to come from all around the capsule as the thing began opening itself, my strikes apparently causing containment procedures to force it to open I suppose. Pulling my Lightsabers out I stepped back to see what I had wrought, ideally the corpse of the occupant I assumed to be inside.

I heard a ragged gasp coming from ruined lungs beneath the lid then I found myself against the far side of the room after being slammed into the wall. The Force blast had been so sudden I had no chance to react and was pinned, watching as the lid completely opened.

"Ahh… eh, eck, cuh, cold…" The body inside the capsule was old and, while not shriveled, clearly aged, as it moved its lips a series of croaking sounds emitted from its mouth. "Ti…me… when?" I felt the Force begin to become coherent and aware even if the body had no such ability, the Force probed me and the voice seemed to be asking a question.

"You are in the golden era of the Jedi it seems, the Sith are nearly dead and the Empire has long since ceased to be. Give me your time so I can say how many years." The almost calm malevolence seemed to try to probe me, however I am not so weak to allow it to do so regardless of the old aura it carries.

Once again the body spoke out, "three… hundred… since… war, thirty… six… hundred… century." Then the body isn't too far off my timeline, which makes sense seeing as I highly suspect who this is. "You are about 3600 years off, it's been awhile, Darth Nox."

At this the body stopped, then it shivered and I could feel the Dark Side once again coiling up, the body rapidly became younger and even the body underneath the skin tight suit filled out. I looked on, morbidly curious about the end result, "Wow, that's… disgusting I have to admit, you sure you wouldn't want to be the wizened old wizard? No one would mess with you, as the old adage goes, 'Really old wizards don't get that way by being easy to kill'" After a few bones popped and the young woman stepped out of the capsule I knew who she was absolutely, none were truly like her.

She looked toward me and struck her own jaw with a popping sound, "Ugh, that will likely be the last time I plan on freezing myself, Force users apparently retain some microscopic awareness even while frozen, and do you know how it feels to pass several thousand years semi-aware? Very different from carbonite freezing I must say, no consciousness is left from that."

I could see the moment she started her pointed meaning as her eyes changed from a playful mood to a deadly serious one. I knew what she wanted, to know what I had gleaned, perhaps if I was an ally or an enemy, "Funny you should mention that, that's how I got to this time, got ambushed by some stupid Sith Lord and he got me good, still can't believe I let my guard down."

The woman suddenly had her eyes light up, "Ah, you're the Emperors Wrath that was present for most of the war weren't you, Lord… Baal? No, wait, that sounds a little too evil…" The woman was irritating, she was possibly the most intelligent woman from my time and the foremost person holding the knowledge of the entire Empire in her hand, or at least that was her plan, knowing her, she might have succeeded.

Darth Nox was clever but I had to bank on her still being out of it from her recent awakening, "I don't suppose you know what happened to my crew way back then do you? I read so many conflicting reports in the archives I found that I can't be sure of any of them, specifically of a Twi'Lek named Vette?"

Nox looked at me quizzically and then glanced to the side as though thinking, "Well, I'm not sure really, your disappearance was many years before the end of the war, and even more before I froze myself." She didn't seem to want to answer me, I suppose I would have to accept that for now.

Keeping the disappointment from my face I got down to business. "This era has no proper Sith order, there are only two Sith, A hidden Sith manipulating the Republic from the inside and a former Jedi with the skill of Sith Lord at best, not a Darth."

With the Sith rundown I hoped she would understand the need to destroy these pathetic remnants. "Additionally, I have come to the graveyard of the Empire's fleet to recreate the Sith Order, I would love your assistance in the matter of the Republic, the weak Sith, or recreating our order."

I decided to take risk and check her connection to the Force, perhaps something had harmed it? The moment I did so the sinking feeling of the corrupted Dark Side prodded me, but I also felt a tremendous will holding it in check, she was forcing that corruption down! "Nox, I can't help but notice that you appear to have collected some skeletons along your journey, I would appreciate you taking care of the Sith of this era for me if you wouldn't mind."

I could almost see the veins popping as she struggled to maintain a façade of humor, "And why exactly should I take orders from you Wrath? Last time I checked your title has not withstood the test of time, our emperor died at the hands of the Jedi in case you forgot." The words came with a slight movement of the Force, she seemed to be preparing something.

At that moment I tapped the corrupted Dark Side she was holding back and I could feel her will reflexively strengthen, "You know as well as I do that what you are wielding is not stable, I don't know how you did it or even why, but I do know that if you and I were to fight you would only win by becoming a slave to that source within you, do you want that? What I am offering is a position in this new effort, it need not be permanent, you don't even need to consider me your leader, but I do want the old Sith gone and you can do that, of this I have no doubt."

Almost completely calming down I could feel her grasp on that corruption weaken, this alarmed me until I realized that she was coming off high alert. "Very well, I will destroy these fake Sith and acquire the knowledge of the Sith over the last millennia, I will return when it is convenient only and I will not answer to you, does this sound acceptable Wrath?"

The corruption was starting to make the room become distressing once more but at least she was in control now, this corruption was likely so fused with her own Force Signature she simply oozed it out unintentionally, the Jedi would smell her from a planet away. I sat down in a chair and sighed, "I don't suppose you remember our collaborative efforts do you? Why are you so insistent that we be enemies, you know what I am and that I will never be your true enemy so why?"

Nox sat down in a chair next to me and leaned back crossing her legs and putting her arm on the table behind us, "It is simple, you are Light and I am Dark, though I sometimes wish it to be otherwise there is no purpose in being overly friendly. Belisaere, do you know what happened to Vette?"

At those words I stiffened and my eyes started to glaze with nostalgia, "I have read your records, there are doubts I have had on them, they seemed almost unbelievable to me, but I suppose I just didn't want to think about it, even if they were forged or incorrect she is still lost to me." The loss of Vette cut deeply as I recalled, truthfully I had simply ignored her being gone, treated it as a long mission where I needed the expertise of Quinn or another Force user like Jaesa, it had only been a short time for me personally.

Her eyes softened ever so slightly as she watched me, "I suppose you are correct, regardless of the outcome she would be lost to you… I don't suppose you would appreciate finding out what really happened would you? It might… I hesitate to call it hope."

Her statement immediately knocked me out of my reverie, "What are you talking about? Vette is no Force Sensitive, she would not have survived being Carbonite frozen for so long, what could possibly give me hope?" Even as I reacted to the word hope, I realized she likely meant something else.

"I suppose it would be a longshot for a non Force Sensitive wouldn't it, but then again, stranger things have happened and you may have access to some ancient Sith sorcery that can heal and fix almost anything shy of death, though I might be able to fix that too, technically. She's on Dromund Kaas, lets see how far into my debt you can go." With those words she patted her robes lightly and got up, walking for the pilots room.

As we stepped out we found a small Togruta sitting on her knees with a blank look on her face. "Ahsoka? Are you okay?" Nox looked at me for a moment then shook her head and walked by. As I leaned down I noticed that she was sitting in a puddle, I sighed and picked her up, I could guess what had happened, it was somewhat obvious, I suppose this might be what it would be like to have a daughter this age perhaps.

As she came to she found herself in the shower, I sat outside and heard her stir, "Ahsoka, are you alright, forget what you felt or heard from that room, I took care of it just clean yourself up and I'll see if I can find some clothes you can fit in." I stepped out and began to check around the ship for some clothes that might have somehow survived long enough that the oxygen would have gotten sucked out, thus preserving them.

After checking all the personal belongings of the non-Nox former residents I found a robe and armor setup that might be modifiable for Ahsoka and stepped over to the modification table to resize it. The armor was color schemed with blue, white and yellow, I felt the colors would work well for the color shocked Togruta, though she was more orange I suppose.

Walking back to the refresher I could hear Nox talking casually to someone and I immediately left my Force Signature walking towards Ahsoka while my physical body headed to Nox. "There is no Sith Empire, we are perfectly capable of being polite… no need for that, the Dark Side has a different meaning around him… No, and I can't believe you would even insinuate that…Far from it, I believe that getting rid of the fake Sith would bring them back easier… Ah, I didn't notice, thanks."

As she said that last statement she turned toward the door and walked to it, "I would appreciate being left to my own devices, it's never a good idea to eavesdrop, especially not on a woman, especially not on a Darth." With that being said she closed the door and I could feel the Force cover it muting all sounds even further.

As I sighed and turned around I heard an uncomfortable voice come from the door where I had left Ahsoka, "Belisaere? Do you have anything yet? Its kinda really cold." I remembered my main purpose and headed to the room.

"I'm leaving them right next to the door, if you need me I'll be at the storage room modifying some things." I left the armored robe I had modified for her and set out with the goal of improving my current gear, the era I was in currently was behind my own in technology in some ways and ahead in others, but not in the personal arms and armor department.

~-Heya there, So I took some liberties here as you may have noticed with the last two chapters, but that's kinda the point, to mess with the canon story just enough to make it new and interesting. Anyway I plan on introducing flashbacks at some point in the future with Italics, I realized that was a resource I had completely overlooked. From here on out the universe is gonna get a little more modified, after all, Belisaere is now in the Dromund system, which has only some basic info on it after the Old republic era, OC's will also probably start making an appearance above that of the Clone squad leader from a while ago, but then again, every clone you name is an OC so…

Again, thanks for reading and I hope to have the next up soon.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Unwanted Attention

~Darth Sidious POV~

For a long time the Force has been at my beck and call, allowing me to see what others cannot and know what others should never know, but for the first time in a very long time the Force has warned me of danger. Only a short time ago I felt the whisper of a problem, but the Dark Side is remarkably tight lipped about its own it seems, for the Force signature I felt was Dark, and I was given no more information than the Jedi Council unwillingly gave me.

Yet even more problematic than this signature was something disgusting probing me through the Force I felt weeks later. This thing was inhuman and reminded me of some of the oldest Holocrons I have pored through during my life, and worse yet, the thing seemed interested in me specifically.

At the end of the week I had gone from confident in my position and feeling invincible to feeling hunted and insecure in my office. After telling the Jedi Council that I have found a security threat to my life and getting some Jedi detailed to me I feel slightly better but now I can see something in the Jedi as well.

The Jedi act very anxious around me, as though they can feel the same thing I can or they have been ordered to be incredibly cautious. I have been in contact with the Jedi Council constantly, but they are keeping something close and not informing me of it, unusual for them.

With all this happening I need to get out of here for a moment, but what reason could I have for getting out of here for a while, perhaps to Korriban to research this.

Well, they are idiots but they pulled it off, they kidnapped me and now I'm finally off of Coruscant, I have precious little time, I'm going to see what this is as rapidly as possible, perhaps what the smaller Dark disturbance is as well. It is unfortunate for Anakin that his 'friend' is in such an unfortunate state of affairs but I'm sure his little Padawan's loss will only drive him closer to the Dark Side anyway.

~Darth Nox POV~

Sickeningly sweet is the Dark Side, Korriban is an excellent example of the Dark Side, I love the feel of the decaying power in the tombs and canyons from dozens of ancient Sith and dead acolytes from ages past.

Korriban is a shadow of its former self, which is actually positive to me, decaying feels more comfortable than actively sinister and evil, perhaps it's all the Force ghosts I have within me.

A tickling in my mind completely different from the normal ghosts angry banging heralded the consciousness I appreciate the most, "I always hate this place, there's no reason for the Dark Side to be so blatantly evil is there?" The voice in my head was that of my failure of an apprentice, Ashara Zavros.

"If the Darth is coming here why wouldn't you attack him en route, before he arrives here? He probably has a far better idea of the planet than you do now." Her no nonsense voice brings an excellent point to mind.

Even as her point makes sense I can tell she only puts forward that question to satisfy her own ego, she knows the reason already, all of us here do, after all we came up with the plan together anyway, not like I can keep much from the ghosts anyway.

The platform is here already, the effort I put into helping Wrath should start paying dividends soon and I have no doubt he won't forget his debt for a very long time. As the Fury lands I hear the Force warning of the platform defenses targeting the ship, I need to be working on that not chatting with ghosts long dead.

With my boots clanging echoing through the empty I walk towards the exit activating the exit with the Force by memory. Once the doors slide open I can hear the ancient defense droids walking in, still as effective now as they were then, luckily as far as Korriban goes, I was pretty much last one out according to the defenses here.

"Darth Nox, here is the keycard." I hold out the tablet with all my info and the droids scan it to check my identity. "Confirmed identity, Welcome Darth Nox, the facility will now activate for you, please activate Force based technologies when you can, they have been deactivated.

The facility doors slide open as I near then, resuming the look I remember from my earliest days of being Sith, though the stairways are no longer visible from sand and the entranceway is only a few feet above the sand, not a multitude of meters.

As I walk in the entrance I feel something that isn't static in the Dark Side, but still made of flesh and blood, Sidious has arrived on planet. Only a few hours to find him while being comfortable in his obliviousness, beyond that and he might notice me.

I don't even need to move to set up the trap, he's coming here, which means he doesn't even get his local advantage from knowing the terrain, I move the Fury just to be safe. I activate the Holocron I brought along and take one more perusal through its contents confirming the ritual and then sit down above the entrance and focus the Dark Side into myself by meditation.

Several hours later a shuttle lands where the Fury once was and an Honor guard disembarked. As the Honor guard set up to receive the Emperor a series of somewhat younger robe clad humanoids exited the shuttle and swept the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

While the Sith wannabes wandered about I noticed one of them near the cliff over the valley, with a slight nudge from the Force she lost her balance and went tumbling over the cliff screaming the whole way down.

Ashara unfortunately decided that I was doing something wrong, "Why would you kill her? She was an innocent here, we could have saved her and brought her to Wrath to retrain! You will never know her past or future now, they are gone from your whim." Sobering words indeed but nonetheless I still felt only dark humor at the unfortunate end I had caused.

"Watch out, Sen wasn't clumsy, something is out here, be on your guard, the last thing we want is some ancient Dark Side creature making a snack out of us." A taller robed boy took off his hood and looked around at the others who seemed startled by the sudden death.

As I peered at him I realized he had Sith lineage, though very diluted, his skin was ever so slightly orange and he had the indicators of the face ridges that the Sith had, perhaps that Holocron was not completely correct on their being extinct.

The Acolytes started moving in groups and scouring the sands for any threats with renewed vigor just as the Emperor walked slowly down the ramp onto a small hover speeder designed for himself and a few others.

The hover speeder started to fly towards the entrance to the Temple and stopped just at the entrance to let the Emperor enter alone, evidently he did not favor others gaining the knowledge he held for himself.

As soon as the Emperor entered the Temple and rounded the large central entrance pillar I called the Force to me and slammed the entrance shut. The Emperor seemed somewhat startled but otherwise unperturbed, safe in his assumption of supreme power I assume.

As an homage to Andronokos, my favorite pirate, I used a bit of knowledge I had acquired that I'm sure he would appreciate and pressed a little red button causing the shuttle to explode spectacularly and causing myself to explode in laughter, "AHAHAAHAHA, oh geez, that was phenomenal, I now understand how he felt about destruction, not very precise, but very rewarding for the effort input."

As I laughed my connection to the Force could no longer be hidden and the Dark Side burst forth from me making up for the time it was hidden with excessive malevolence. The Emperor immediately recoiled as he felt the discomfort in his mind change to sheer terror, this man was going to become the puppet instead of the puppeteer soon, I look forward to running the Republic that demolished my beloved Empire.

~Belisaere POV~

"Damn her, figures she would leave me stranded right next to the Dark Temple with an impressionable young apprentice… Ahsoka, get over here, don't touch anything, don't look at anything but the ground and don't respond to any thought that might not be yours, basically, hold my hand and follow me without thinking." I was in a bad mood and I could feel it bleeding out into my interactions with Ahsoka.

She looked perturbed as well from being on a planet that was basically seeped in the Dark Side, but she also seemed strangely giddy as well, almost bipolar-esque, perhaps due to the fact that Dromund Kaas after having fallen completely back into the jungle was basically a slightly colder version of the environment her species thrived in.

"Really? I can handle myself, I have been up against everything there is with… Skywalker. Anyway, I can take care of myself." She didn't grasp the problem at all, and of course her trademark confidence was in place again.

The temple steps were as I remembered them, damaged, worn, old and they led to an increasing Dark Side presence in front of me.

_This place is the pits, seriously, for what reason could Baras possibly want us here other than to kill us off in the most obnoxious way possible?_

_Even if Baras wants to kill us off, it isn't our place to do something about it, we live, we die, all by the whim of Baras, but for the time being I would prefer to think that our Master isn't actively trying to kill us yet, let's get some accomplishments under our belts before you let your ego over-inflate._

_Still, I really don't like the idea of murdering all these accidentally Dark Side infused people, they aren't even real Sith mostly, they also look ridiculous, one of them was positive he was a Sith Lord, it was hilarious._

_I don't like it either Kahvi, but they block my way and I have no intention of being a simple stepping stone, I desire something greater and will listen to him as long as he is useful to me as well. Perhaps you are right though, however, I do not think with our current power we can save them._

_It won't be long, once I get enough knowledge, I don't intend on sticking around, let's get through here, I don't want to be here longer than we need to be, stupid ancient Sith artifact._

A significant time of my younger Sith days were spent here in a series of attempts to placate my new master and the other Sith whose attention I had drawn. This Temple was not host to many pleasant memories but I did recall an old ally I had worked alongside multiple times, after all, few people are truly alone.

This ally, a traditional warrior like me, was a younger human woman who followed a similar path of using the Dark Side while resisting its temptations. The largest difference between us was our subtlety and our strength of denial.

The Sith Warrior, Kahvi, had almost no subtlety and denied the Dark Side far more than I did, frequently she would put us into situations that I was almost positive would result in a Sith Lord deciding that we needed to be executed for sheer rudeness.

The Dark Side also responded differently to her, it actively avoided her, she seemed to draw it in, not the other way around, I suspect that she would have become an excellent Jedi, perhaps she did, she left halfway through the war.

The Dark Temple was nothing but memories now and I had to make the most of them, were some of the most notorious Sith to have lived, only rivaled by the Sith buried on Korriban.

Ahsoka looked toward me with a cocksure attitude per the usual but this time seemed a little more tempered with caution, "Master, the temple is completely open, shall we head in?"

As soon as I stepped in I heard a voice in my head, "So you too are here to seek the secrets within, begone, there is nothing for you here, you have perverted the ways of the Sith" The voice came from what appeared to be a Vine Cat.

"Master, Can I? Come on let me, I can beat it." Ahsoka waited for only a moment, as if to feign following my orders then leapt at the Vine Cat with Lightsaber ready.

What followed was nothing less than embarrassing, Ahsoka was stopped mid-air, then flung into a pillar and struck with Force Lightning continuously. Admittedly she was taking it well, it didn't appear to be lethal and she even seemed to be resisting to some degree, perhaps this was her first lesson.

I looked toward her and began my lesson, "Apprentice, break the shackles that bind you, find freedom, _'Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. Through Passion I gain Strength. Through Strength I gain Power. Through Power I gain Victory. Through Victory my Chains are Broken. The Force shall free me.'_ These words are words to live by, remember them and you will break your shackles and come back to the Jedi as an equal, able to talk and negotiate."

A strange spark lit in her eye and I could feel the Force's favor toward her, indeed she was better suited to the Dark Side, though her morals would hold her back, thankfully, just enough, in the end I don't want a mindless drone of hatred, this helps no one and causes nothing but meaningless strife.

I look toward the ghost and I feel the Force respond, rippling about me, "Ghost, I need to know where the Tomb of Sith Lord Kahvi is, you may continue entertaining my Apprentice in the meantime."

The ghost looked to me and sneered, but the moment he did so the Force abandoned him as I felt it come to me, "I can isolate you, how would you feel if you became an observer incapable of ever again interacting with this world?"

The ghost immediately started fading, "You seek Kahvi? Come this way, I will take you up on your offer to torment your Apprentice."

Finally, the last steps to her, soon I would see her again, I also wonder what Kahvi's Tomb would look like, she was likely an enemy to the Empire so I wonder what its gonna be.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Last of an Era

The tomb was utterly commonplace, no different than the hundreds around and along the great hallways, somewhat of a disappointment considering who was entombed here.

The seal on the tomb was strong but earthquakes and the like had weakened it enough over the millennia to the point that I could damage it from the outside. The damaged barriers slowly crumbled under my efforts until a short hallway into the tomb was revealed.

The tomb was old, the entire place was so dusty I believe I would have died without a built in air filter, my lungs eventually drying up from being filled with nothing dust.

Upon arriving at the tomb proper the sights become rapidly different, instead of a calm ancient dusty feeling, instead the inside of the tomb is torn to shreds, ravaged by some huge power. "What…" a sharp exclamation came from my mouth as my normally taciturn expression turned to a more disturbed one, this was where Nox had sent me to find Vette, the Tomb of Kahvi.

Walking to the coffin in the center of the room, yet again more unexpected events. Inside the gashed open coffin was Lightsaber etched writing inside the coffin.

In words that I can only attribute to that of my former compatriot I read the words written inside. "To Nox, Next time make sure I'm dead! To Belisaere, I got your wife and I'm putting on the Kahvi charm, unfortunately now she doesn't like caf… being a frozen person and all. To Baras, If somehow you were able to survive, 'Gives Bird', If you are merely an angry ghost, Ha! To Sta'boh, how are you not dead yet you psychopath? And I think that'll be all."

At the bottom is a roughly sketched bird with a long and inane description leading up to the bird being the named the middle finger. Subtle.

Just great, at the bottom is a time stamp labeling this to be more than a thousand years ago, so Kahvi is probably dead, hopefully now I only need to find where she went to find Vette, I can only hope she didn't release her or nothing will have changed other than I've lost Vette forever again.

I stepped out somewhat dejected and gradually made my way around the Dark Temple looking for any opened tombs to either raid or setup base in.

Halfway through the temple I found the tomb of… I really don't remember his name, he was basically a footnote in my life, some Light Side Sith Lord who gave me a holocron I gave to another Sith Lord researcher in the camp at the foot of the Temple. The tomb of the Light Side Sith Lord was opened and inside was a significant number of possessed animals all of which appeared to be quietly sitting and bowing toward a larger creature in the middle.

I looked toward the larger creature then said "Are you the original resident of this tomb? Or are you another insane Sith ghost?" The smaller creatures didn't react at all but the largest one in the back got to its feet and growled briefly before walking slowly towards me.

The creature did not seem to be stalking me but instead analyzing me, if I were to attack I don't think it would be ready. Finally the creature lay down in front of me and I heard a voice come from the vicinity. "You are… has it not been a great amount of time since we last met? Or has the passage of time finally eluded me completely?"

This was a good step, I could use this ghost as a mentor as well, his input of knowledge should not be small nor should it be overly biased in his teaching of the Dark Side. "I have returned, and yes it has been a great many years, you are not incorrect. I have come with a distinct purpose and a few questions. First, do you know where the Sith Lord Kahvi went after she left the tomb?"

I had very little confidence he would actually give me useful information in regards to where Kahvi had gone, after all the ghost could only influence things inside the temple. "I only know she left the temple from the front, given the lack of other easily accessible exits I believe that should be obvious."

Worth a try I suppose, "Then next is whether you would be willing to teach my Apprentice in my absence, I expect great things from her, she is formerly Jedi so her base is good, please teach her accordingly. I need to be off planet and plan to find the remains of Kaas City if I can."

The ghost was silent for a moment longer then finally spoke, "This is not a place for an Apprentice, she could easily be possessed by the malevolent spirits here and the Dark Side will negatively affect her were a strong Light Side force like yourself to be present."

I understood what he meant but I had already thought about this, I knew what Nox had done just well enough to suspect this should work, "Then bind yourself to my Apprentice, she could use a guardian to help her in the future, I will standby to make sure the ritual works as Nox told me it would. If you are fine with this arrangement then the ritual should be simple with little consequence."

The ghost seemed pleased with the situation, "This arrangement will serve both of us well, I will return to the world once again and your Apprentice will have her guardian and teacher, do not leave her entirely to me lest she be painted the colors of my training alone, an Apprentice should be a beautiful collaboration, not a single artist's work."

Kel'Eth Ur, that's what his name was, well, I had my temporary teacher so I headed down to the entrance again to find Ahsoka. What awaited me was a somewhat awkward fight that had likely been going on for a while.

Ahsoka was currently stabbing the previous Vine Cat repeatedly while being shocked, I don't think she got that the ghost didn't really need a physical body to attack her though it did seem to be weakening the attack so I suppose it was working.

She was clearly becoming enraged and had stopped paying attention to the lightning, "Just… Die… Already… Gah! Why won't you die! Oh, it's dead… get out here and fight me!"

As soon as she realized that the Vine Cat was very dead but she was still being electrocuted she called out her opponent. "Ahsoka, Hidden Sith won't reveal themselves to begin an honorable duel, how you get a Sith to come out of hiding is you enrage them and give them the opportunity, or at least let them think it's an opportunity. Like here, catch."

I tossed her an unconscious Vine Cat, "Use this to get him to come out, once you kill the Sith ghost until he stops attacking you enter the temple and call out the name Kel'Eth Ur, initiate a contract ritual with him. Do not worry he is trustworthy." At least I hope so, I'll be back hopefully before she kills the Sith ghost enough times to get him to lose interest, that should be quite a few times, I'll leave food.

"I'll be back in around 6 hours, don't get over your head in the meantime and wear this, it will help you resist possession." I hand her a necklace with a small pendant glowing with the Dark Side, hopefully short term exposure won't be too bad, I think I'm running off of guesswork a little too much around here.

With one last glance at Ahsoka I turn and head toward where I remember Kaas City being, this will be a memory laced trek indeed.

~Darth Nox POV~

The little bugger really is slippery, he should be mortally wounded but he is still managing to get away, half the pathways in here I had no idea existed in spite of the fact that I mapped this place out repeatedly when I came here after the war.

Sidious put up a significant struggle, he seemed to rely heavily on his great strength and control of the Force, however, his physical abilities left much to be desired, therefore when I showed him a greater mastery of the Force he was effectively rendered helpless.

Nevertheless he knew many techniques I had never seen and had likely been developed in the millennia since my disappearance, particularly a variation of the Force Cloak that really threw me for a loop, he seemed to be blessed with a Force gift like Battle Meditation or my ghost gift and unfortunately his gift seemed to be related to deception.

Even so, for him to manage to get outside the temple and take off is thoroughly surprising to me, I think he underestimates my ability to pilot.

As I approach I can hear my ship whining from the electronic warfare suite, though the technology appears to have diminished in some ways electronic warfare was never a strong point of my era so I'm not surprised the ship is rapidly losing this battle.

Just as the ship shut itself down I managed to grab his ship with the Force and smash our two ships together damaging forward propulsion just as the ship was entering Hyperspace. "Shit…" That was not quite what I was hoping was going to happen I hope I don't die…

~Darth Sidious POV~

That vixen managed to knock my ship out of its predetermined course and now we are floating only a short jump distance from where we were! Worse, the ship is actively being dragged into orbit along with her ship which also got caught up in the phenomenon she created.

The planet below seems like a primarily ocean world, not as much as Kamino but close, the ship should be able to handle re-entry and landing, hopefully she dies in her husk of a ship as it hurtles toward the surface.

In the meantime I need to figure out if there are any natives that could repair the ship in the condition it is.

~Darth Nox POV~

"Dammit, Dammit… I can't go losing this ship already, but if I save it with the Force I might not be ready to face Sidious and hold the ghosts in check… Andronikos!" The moment I said the name I immediately narrowed my eyes and bit my lip, "Shit…" I slouched in the chair, temporarily devoid of drive and felt the ghosts immediately slip into the cracks in my mental guard.

The ghosts would keep me alive for their own benefit, perhaps it would be a few years before I could wrest back control from them but then again, I might land in an ocean and it would take them that long just to get near shore. I don't care right now…

As I faded away I felt something touch my mind, "Ah, you're back! There's no way you woulda let yourself die after all, but I couldn't find you. Whatever, bygones be bygones or something like that." No freaking way.

The ship came to a sudden halt and I opened my eyes to see the ship was a few feet off the ground. The exit groaned as it was forced open and the entire ship then shuddered as it was set down.

I walked out the exit and looked at the figure in a… bikini… on a couch in the middle of a large amount of household furniture, there was no house or walls just a stretch of sand and furniture.

I couldn't believe it, not her, out of everyone, every single Sith in the Empire, she survived to now? "How?" was all I could muster from my disbelieving mouth.

The woman didn't get up and continued lounging, after a short sip of something she looked back up, "As my note said, next time try harder, shoulda made sure I was dead before you threw me in a coffin." With a cocksure smirk she continued sipping her drink.

"Make sure? I CUT OFF YOUR HEAD! I can't be surer than holding your head while your body slumped to the ground! I didn't slit your throat, I cut your head clean off!" It was impossible, I left the traitor beyond dead then threw her body in a tomb for those that threaten the Empire, I even made sure it was in the Dark Temple because I knew of her affinity to the Light Side!

Yet again she looked up at me, this time she actually sat up instead of lying down on the couch, "Yeah, but were you SURE I was dead? Sith have come back from worse haven't they? Anyway, as for why I'm here I figured since Baras sent me to nothing but planets that were metaphorically, or sometimes literally, toilets I figured I deserved to go save a beach vacation planet and look! It took me a few hundred years but I found the best beachiest planet I could, helped the natives and then sat down to find inner peace or what not, mostly just to relax."

I didn't ask nor did I care about what she had been doing on this planet, "Getting your head cut off is well known for killing every kind of Sith ever, unless you somehow learned how to use illusions which I doubt. I don't care anymore, I'll find out how you've survived up to this point later, for now I need to you to find an Emperor who just crash landed on this planet."

She lifted her shades for a moment and looked at me incredulously, "Well… give me a moment." She looked away from me for a moment and looked like she was checking the immediate surroundings in a circle.

When her gaze returned to me she looked startled then rotated her head all the in reverse until she was looking at me again. "I found one! She's nearby and oh man is she one ugly old sorceress! She's even getting off a crashed ship just like you said!"

I hate this woman, she has absolutely no respect for any authority and has no understanding of consequences when you piss off Sith. As soon as I reached toward her to choke her I felt something.

Her expression changed slightly, "No, you can't do that, this is my vacation planet, no Dark Side here, I'll help you get your fellow Emperor off planet, but don't expect me to get chummy with you, I remember what you've done and I won't ever forget."

For a moment I got a slight chill down my spine, the woman could play the power card but I knew who was stronger, "Fine, but if you piss me off enough that I don't mind losing my body for a few years in order to kill you… You know how it'll end."

A slight defiance flashed in her eyes but she knew who I was and didn't push any further. "Ah, by the way, have you seen Wrath? I got his wife here cuz I didn't wanna leave her in that musty place."

I raised my eye for a moment and looked toward where she was pointing and saw a statue that looked exactly the same as it had when I first froze her, there was Vette, the love of a certain man's life. "Hmm, yes I have, I'll tell you after this."

Time to hunt down the cornered animal, no escapes this time.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Resurgence

~Aayla Secura POV~

Ever since that Sith had appeared and shaken things up I'm not sure about how to treat the Council, they knew he was a Sith and yet only me Shaak Ti and Mace Windu saw anything about his intentions.

Lamenting over past failings won't help anyone though, even now with him having stolen away Padawan Tano we are in full alert, that man, Wrath or Belisaere is a threat to us now.

While I was sitting there pondering what was going on with the Dark Side of the Force I felt something reveal itself to me through the Force, it was immense! I looked around for anyone else who might have felt this presence and ran back to where I had passed by Master Yoda a short time ago.

"Master Yoda! I just sensed something immense on the planet, did you notice anything?" The short green Jedi slowly got to his feet and looked mildly pleased.

As he walked over to me he spoke, "Find the source of this, we should. Shifting, the Light is. No evil in this presence, I see." The Master walked slowly past, I suspect it will take longer to get to his hover chair than to the source of the Light in the slums of Coruscant beneath us.

After what seemed to be an eternity of following Yoda we were finally in a speeder heading down, the slums were not to be underestimated, they were a place that had stark contrasts around every corner.

As we passed yet another heavily, and likely illegally armed guard in front of an establishment I began to wonder what source we were looking for, had the force sent us a beacon to find a tool that could be used to help us against this great threat from the Dark Side, or had another talented individual been born?

Yoda seemed to glance at me for a moment, "Worry, You should not. Caution, exercised it should be, but helping you, worry will not." I feel like the distinction between worry and caution were a little too close for me to understand despite his advice.

As we got closer to a large structure built to stand out I became more uncomfortable, the feeling was coming from this establishment, but this was not the kind of place where a Jedi should ever tread, much less a reputable Jedi.

A house of ill repute I remember hearing when I was younger, or something like it, anyway, it was clearly a place I should not be going, much less due to the unfortunate perception many had toward my species. "Master Yoda, how could the Light be coming from such a place?"

Yoda yet again glanced up to me and lightly shook his head, "Judge, you are not. Perfect, this world is not. Look down upon others, we should not."

Feeling chided I stepped off the speeder while Yoda got into his hover chair, the place was, unfortunately, exactly as bad as I had imagined, scantily clad women and men were about and had not even entered the building itself.

As we walked toward the building I could feel the stares from the many surrounding people, it wasn't very late so the number of people wasn't too high, but I could feel the emotions ranging from curiosity to utter loathing.

Upon entering the building we went up to the desk with a very shocked looking purple Twi'Lek who greeted us somewhat awkwardly, "Um, hello, how can I help you Ms. Secura and Mr. Yoda?" I don't really know how she knew our names, but I suppose it wasn't too surprising considering how often now we were show across the Holonet now.

I put on a smile and eased her emotions with the Force, "We just need to take a look around, specifically," I pointed my finger in the direction where I felt the presence, "Over in that section."

The clerk suddenly looked even more embarrassed and then quietly told us, "That… That section is the… Active section, its… umm…" I got her hint, but at this point I had realized that the presence was indeed just that, a presence, it seemed alive, much more likely to be a Force Sensitive child.

"Problematic though it may be, in that section is a Force Sensitive child we will be taking to the Jedi Temple to be trained." If it was Force Sensitive and had just been revealed then there was only one thing it could be, a young soon to be Jedi.

The clerk yet again look around awkwardly, "I don't think you have the right place, none of the women in there are pregnant that I know of and all the people in there are at least… (Mumble) years old."

The moment I heard the clerk mumble like that I immediately became suspicious, why wasn't she mentioning the ages of the occupants of the rooms? "I think I need to take a look around now." My face becoming stiff.

The clerk started getting flustered as me and Yoda walked toward the back where we felt the presence and picked up a phone, we would deal with that when it became a problem.

After walking down a few hallways and almost getting lost despite a clear end goal we came upon a room with the numbers 527 on it. I lightly knocked on the door hoping to break some of the awkwardness I might see upon entering.

Thankfully it seemed to help because when I said "I'm coming in!" and opened the door I saw a hastily clad very angry woman on the other side and a young man with a pair of terrifying eyes. The woman rapidly left the room once she recognized us as Jedi but the man, really more of a boy, sat down on the bed.

As I collected my thought the boy spoke, "Took you long enough, I even had to perform in this boy's body, not like it matters, it's not like it's an attachment if its prostitution. Anway, it is good to meet you Grandmaster Yoda and Jedi Master Aayla Secura, perhaps we might leave and speak somewhere significantly more pleasant?"

Swept along with his words we all headed to the speeder like nothing odd was going on, while Yoda lightly chatted with him the whole way.

Once we were back at the Jedi Temple I felt something slip off my mind, immediately I knew I had been influenced against my will, "You! How did you?" Almost immediately I was cut off by the boy.

His next words sent chills down my spine, "Palpatine is Sidious. Little late for that information to be useful sadly, but nevertheless it is true, ah, and by the way, please do not speak as though I am beneath you, I am a former Grandmaster myself after all and Battemaster, ah, this might jog your memory, have you ever read of the Hero of Tython from the war some 4000 years ago or so?"

I feel like I have read that somewhere but I'm not sure where, but Yoda immediately had a small smirk on his face, evidently he knew. "A phantom of our past, you are." The boy nodded lightly.

I recalled reading of his exploits, most of which had been damaged or lost despite extensive efforts to retain knowledge, but nevertheless, the light brown skinned Male Zabrak had been a great enough legend to survive the loss of much of his history.

I, however still couldn't understand what was happening, "I'm not sure I follow how you are here though, you don't appear a day over 16, you clearly aren't a Zabrak and I can't understand why a Jedi could stand to stay in a…" I struggled for a less… dirty sounding word.

He slightly frowned, "I believe the word you are looking for would be whorehouse, and no, this is not my body as I have already mentioned, this is the body of a child by the name of Zuel and, interestingly enough, is a many generationally detached grandchild of mine. His strength in the Force is unfortunately nothing to be surprised over."

This answered a few questions but left some of the most notable ones untouched, "I mean, how did you get here? Or, I suppose, why are you in the body of someone else? And also, you had kids?"

The boy's eyebrows twitched for a moment at the last question but nevertheless he maintained a calm demeanor. "When I died, I became one with the Force, however, before I died I performed a ritual that would turn me into something greater, A Guardian of the Jedi Order. My task was to watch over the order as it dealt with the threats that remained from my era, I believed my task complete some 2000 years ago."

He looked up for a moment and a slight smile cracked his impassive porcelain features. "Except for one I suppose but I had no reason to chase her, she was a threat to no one and could even be relied upon to save the Jedi Order should a need arise, a strange woman indeed, for a Sith at least."

At that his slight grin turned to a deeper frown than he had earlier. "That being said, I have not arrived to save you from a doom you were so readily walking into in the form of Sidious' trap, I have come to protect the Jedi Order from a legacy of my era."

I started to talk to ask a question but he interrupted me and continued unabated. "The First you know well, his name is Belisaere, formerly known as the Emperors Wrath and a talented warrior by his own merit, he is not immediately dangerous to the Jedi Order but his long term goals will damage or destroy the Order."

I remembered Belisaere, I had seen him a few times briefly in some of the holocalls with the Jedi Council, even then I didn't trust him but I suppose no one actually trusted him.

As if he had been paused so that I might absorb what he was saying he continued, "The Second is the most dangerous of the three and should be avoided at all costs, she is known as Darth Nox and, while only brief, took over the position of Emperor after the war. This should give you an example of the scale of danger she represents." He looked to Yoda as Yoda gave a slight cough.

"If such a great threat, she is, find her we must. Know where to find her, you do?" Yoda was relaxing into his chair as we continued walking toward the Meditation Chambers.

The boy nodded lightly, "I do, but give me a moment longer, I will get back to Darth Nox later. The Third is a lesser known Sith who has managed to… persist, across the millennia, while on her own she is no threat, she is the person that I mentioned who could help the Jedi Order should great need arise."

We arrived at the Meditation Chambers and entered into a larger more central chamber with a small creek running through the center. "Her name is Sith Lord Kahvi, she is a traitor to the Sith Empire and Nox would just as soon kill her, however, she is incredibly well off with ancient Rakata technology and Sith techniques. Sadly she also knows a fair bit of Jedi techniques as well."

The last of the Three did not even sound like a threat to me, "So if this Kahvi is hated by the Sith and is considered a potential ally to the Jedi then why do you consider her a threat to us?"

He sat down on an uncomfortable looking rock next to the creek then turned to me, "First of all, she is still a Sith, a friendly one, but a Sith nonetheless. Kahvi's teachings would lead us to the Dark Side were she to be allowed to teach. Secondly, she considers Belisaere, the Wrath, to be a worthy individual to support and owes him many favors from when they fought together during the wars, she would not abandon him to death."

If the old Sith ignored the Rule of Two then wouldn't they fight amongst themselves to oblivion? "Master… I don't believe you have given us your name yet, with the Sith now ignoring the Rule of Two, would they not destroy themselves?"

He closed his eyes as began to meditate lightly while talking to us, "I have no intention of erasing everything this boy is, you may call this human Jarr. The Sith will not destroy eachother, they make a perfect triangle of threat, Belisaere is a powerful warrior and can force his way through the tricks of Kahvi, Kahvi can be considered a trickster with many nearly impossible techniques that she has scrounged in her millennia of travel and is capable of circumventing many of Nox's powerful techniques and Nox is a powerful assassin sorcerer capable of crushing the warrior Belisaere with the Force."

He returned to the frown from before yet again, "That being said, Nox would not kill Belisaere because he also strives for power and is slightly in line with her goals, additionally Kahvi would exact swift vengeance. Kahvi would not kill Nox because she is both apathetic to Nox and is slightly averted to murder. Belisaere would not kill Kahvi as her apathy would never place her in the way of his goals."

With that being said the youth sighed then closed his mouth and stared expectantly at the both of us. I don't know what he was expecting aside from perhaps more questions but I needed to meditate on what he has informed us of, especially about Palpatine.

After a brief pause Yoda spoke up, "Much information, this is. Meditate on this, I must. Send a Youngling to guide you, I will." With that being said he then floated out of the room.

I looked at Jarr, "I do not know how we will win a fight on two fronts if the Sith decide to attack us as well. Will you be able to lead our war effort against the seperatists?"

Jarr closed his eyes again, "Your Republic has failed its members, the Jedi is tied to the Republic, but this is not a ball and chain, simply a cord, either cut the cord with the Republic and let them do what they wish or let the Seperatists go. The Seperatists have legitimate grievances, additionally the corruption amongst the Senate has not been purged, this will need to be done at some point."

I immediately caught on to what he was saying, "Wait, purge? As in removing them? How do you intend to do that?"

A slight smile returned to his lips, he seemed to have only 3 facial expression, slight frown, slight smile and deadpan. "Aayla, I have been a scholar, a Battlemaster, A Grandmaster, A Sith hunter and a ghost of the Light Side, in all this time none have convinced me that they know better than me and I have proven myself superior to all around me, it would be a simple matter to put myself in a position of power then steer the Republic the direction it needs to go. If I do not it will be led to its own destruction."

"That would lead to you attempting to gain the role of Dictator! How could we let you do such a thing? Why would you turn yourself into an Emperor?" I stated while holding in my shock as much as I could.

He put both hands out in front of himself, "Imagine that I had in my left hand I had all the innocents in the galaxy and in my right all the criminals, which hand would be heavier?"

I had no idea where he was going with this random analogy, "The innocents would be heavier."

He then put his left and right hand together, "There are only children amongst the innocent, yet they cause those around them to be innocent by proxy, and criminals cause those around them to lose this purity by proxy, therefore, the two groups have no meaning. I believe that the world should be left to its own devices with the Jedi Order acting as peacekeepers, as they should have been, this means no one is above the Jedi Order, the only way to keep ourselves absolutely accountable is to follow the Light with reckless abandon."

After his monologue I realized this boy was indeed not young, "You… make an interesting point, I will also need to meditate on this, please excuse me." With that being said I hurriedly exited the room away from the strange youth.

His words were strangely pleasing, I could feel myself wanting to believe him, but I could not tell whether this was due to him influencing me with the Force or not. He was right though, we should have been peacekeepers, but we had somehow been shoved to the side as though a convenient defensive combat option, if we were in a war it should be one to protect peace and cohesion, not destroy it.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Old Dark Fades

~Darth Nox POV~

It figures, that old fogey would come back, just couldn't leave well enough alone. "Well shit, guess who all is back?" I glanced at the human woman at my side, the scar on her face reminding me of all the times I tried to kill her and, apparently failed.

Seeing me glance at the scar on her face she cracked an enormous smile, "Wanna know how I got these scars?" I immediately regretted giving her the time of day.

After her quip she then lost the smile and looked considerably more serious, "I've felt him consistently in all the time I've been around, but I kinda thought he just became one with the Force, evidently not quite, that Hero sure doesn't like you."

I could feel my jaw clench as I realized the implication, "Wait, you've felt him this whole time? Why didn't he simply wipe you out then?"

She grinned as she skipped forward in a disgusting manner, no adult should ever skip like that, "Yeah, he mighta but I'm really difficult to kill and also I think he doesn't mind me all that much, he only hunted me down a little bit while he was doing the Sith purge and all that."

I lengthened my stride to catch up with the idiot, "You are an insufferable idiot, where is Sidious, your planet is far too shrouded in the Light Side for me to see anything through this infuriating Light."

While she lightly laughed in an almost girly manner she arrived at a rock face and moved her hand clearly activating something with the Force. A slight groove in the rock increased in size to become an opening which Kahvi walked into.

Great, walk into the dark cave with the crazy woman, I don't even know how much crazier she has gotten from being alive all this time. "Is there a method to your madness? Or are you simply mad?"

The irritating woman yelled back to me, "Wait out there on the beach, I'll be with you in a moment." Fine, I suppose I will be attempting to relax on this uncomfortable planet.

A few minutes later as I was busy melting due to not being willing to get out of my full armor and robes a rumbling sound came from an inland cliff cave and a familiar ship slowly flew out. "Shit, I really thought I shot that down, I suppose that nothing about this woman is killable, dissecting is the only reasonable option left."

As the ship landed I could see the modifications to the ship she had made, evidently her time had not been ill spent here either. The ship had been upgraded so heavily it looked like a flying armory, the armor was so large that the ship appeared to be double the size.

Upon entering the ship after the rear entrance opened I realized that the ship insides had been reduced to be barely survivable in, there was the meeting room, the entranceway and the pilots room, but nothing else. The humming components showed off how she had made her ship maintain its nimbleness and power despite having vastly more draw from the weapons, shields and engines.

Walking to the pilots room I heard her inside, "Welp, that makes one more planet I have to keep hidden at all costs, okay, no one makes it out alive! Except stupid Nox I suppose, but then again, there'd be no fun in killing a crazy madwoman."

Standing there in the doorway while the woman never even bothered to look at me, "You do know you lowered the ramp? You basically invited me in and you talk like you don't think I'm here? Also, I am far saner than you."

She coughed lightly and stuffed something in her robes, "Oh, well then, forgot I shouldn't be an eccentric Force User when there are others that are your age or older. Ah, and by the way, I don't appreciate you calling me out for my crazy, we're both super crazy, I think Bel is the only sane one among us and in some ways he's totally insane too."

I lightly snickered, she didn't know the half of it, but I do somewhat agree, we are all somewhat crazy, go figure, we are all Sith after all. "You have an interesting ship, where did you get all this?"

She smiled as wide as she could manage and then sat in the pilots seat. "Okay, here we go, hold on, I removed some of the less… useful components cuz I have the Force so I don't need em as much, also I got a nice seat!"

A half hour later I had nearly died several times due to a total lack of what should have been vital components on any ship with a crew. The ship was a flying coffin but at least it could take on anything shy of a straight up carrier or capital ship.

The environment beneath me suddenly felt like it darkened and I heard Kahvi shout from the pilots room. "This guy has some serious lightning! He's actually managing to drain the shield significantly, I'm putting the ship down before he gets through them and damages the ship! Go get em, I'm opening the exit!"

I immediately jumped out, thankful that I was off this stupid ship and plummeting toward my prey. He looked hilarious, so old and yet trying so hard to take me out once he saw me, almost adorable, like an ugly wrinkly baby.

A lightning bolt hit me square and I felt it deep, the impact went straight through the static barrier and the armor burned against my skin, this man was serious business I guess. I refreshed the static barrier and started to respond with my own lightning to start forcing him on the defensive.

Hitting the ground hard the Force swelled out and I could feel the sheer joy coming from each of the ghosts I hosted. The smash wrought pure chaos on my surroundings, the ground cratered as shards of stone and earth flew.

Sidious flew back after being hit by the shockwave and smashed into a tree, he fell to his knees as I stood up. "You are old! Weak! Your brand of subterfuge will give no true victory, only a sad weak one! Be glad it is I who am here to kill you and not the Sith of old! Their mercy would have surely broken your soul!"

With my monologue out of the way I sprinted my way to his position as he shakily got to his legs and did something with his hands. Immediately becoming suspicious I step back and slowly work to have the shadows lengthen.

The entire island begins to become darker as the sun mutes and becomes redder, this is what I truly love about assassinating, letting the target know that they are in my domain now and blood is the only payment accepted.

Fading into the long shadows I can feel my body become gradually less physical as the Force diffuses me and hides me from more than just sight.

I walk towards the old man until I am only one step from him and ignite my Lightsaber again, the blade is almost tickling his chin when suddenly I feel a vast presence, it feels like the one I hunted, but larger, and perhaps he did not have access to his full power for some reason.

The Force suddenly rippled as lightning began coming out from him in every direction, the lightning was destructive and the nearby ocean let out immense amounts of steam into the air.

Struck by hundreds of bolts at once I blinked out for a moment but then managed to heal my burnt body at a rate that kept me alive, though I was effectively torturing my body by doing so.

"You… I… See… what… you!" I couldn't make a coherent thought and the anger and pain boiled over. Screaming out so loudly I coughed out blood from my already damaged vocal cords I found myself on the ground looking up to the man in front of me who had an evil grin on him.

The rage for this face in front of me caused me to look inward instinctually toward the leeches of my mind and grab a Twi'Lek ghost and crush him, the resulting chaos from his destruction was all directed toward Sidious.

~Darth Sidious POV~

The woman was defeated, I caught her off guard by holding back until the last moment, completely confident in her ability to defeat me she finally slipped up and got close, I could feel the intent in the Force as she let go of her cloak, the moment I felt that I let out everything I had been holding back.

Watching her eyes start to roll and her screams of agony was astounding, here was a woman who was powerful enough to put me in extreme danger, it almost made me want to find out what makes her tick, but as an extreme threat she has to be put down.

As I raised my Lightsaber I could feel the pure malice in her gaze upon me, but there was nothing she could do to me, I had her held down with the Force and I was stronger than her. When my Lightsaber came down the world suddenly went upside down as I felt my grasp on the Force disappear.

The woman in front of me had her eyes rolled back into her head and simply floated lightly off the ground with pulses of the Force coming off of her, the shredded trees fell in slow motion and the sand had obscured the world around me.

She let out a bloody aura and the Force in the environment repulsed away from her, she felt wrong, an open wound in the Force, this was not how the Force was meant to be used, something inside of this monster was bleeding the Force like its Lifeblood.

Unable to run and unable to even touch the Force the Lightsaber at her side that activated was sure to be my doom. This is not how it was meant to be! Everything was perfect, everything had been setup, backed up and backed up again, there was no possibility of failure! Yet here she was! This walking aberration mocked everything I have strived for!

The rage of an entire lifetime surged forth but even with that the Force wouldn't acknowledge me, "You! You are a blight! You can never kill me, I am the last true Sith Emperor but I will hide in the shadows and I will destroy you!" The Lightsaber flew towards me. My eyes shut.

~Darth Nox POV~

Everything was creaking, my bones hurt like I was actually feeling my age and the spots in my eyes were so numerous that they made up the majority of my non-comprehensible vision. The sand suddenly felt very inviting, the damage my body had taken was so much I truly didn't want to endure it.

Suddenly a Light Side presence appeared next to me, I knew who it was before she spoke. "So… killed him? I can't really feel him anymore so I suppose that means he's dead huh?" I think I groaned, my hearing was going in and out so I'm not sure.

Turning where I supposed her to be, "Get away from me, If I really felt like it I could destroy you too, and no, he isn't dead, not really, even if it was mostly due to a lack of a contender he was still an Emperor, his power was no joke, I suspect him to be somewhere in the galaxy recovering and finding a new body."

Hearing the sand scuffle I heard her lean closer, "Hey, so you need some help right, ya kind of look like death, in spite of the fact that you normally look like death, hey lemme talk to someone else in there."

I guess she knows something she shouldn't perhaps she inferred it from our brief connection earlier, "I don't know what you're talking about and no I refuse to do something like that if I theoretically could do something like what you are implying." A little nonsensical, but to be fair, I'm not in full control of my senses right now.

A voice that was similar to Kahvi's but also different suddenly entered my ear, "You are lost, speak to me, speak to me as you once knew how." A piercing pain ran through my head, "What did you do? Is this a Jedi Mind Trick?" then suddenly only the void remained.

~Ashara Zavros POV~

For many, many years I have followed my master, whether her pursuits were noble or otherwise I knew that one day I might see her redeemed, yet even when I became her apprentice after my betrayal of the Jedi I wondered if I would die before it happened.

The final days of my life were far from pleasant, the Jedi were hunting down every remaining Sith across the galaxy at the behest of the Hero of Tython and I was no longer considered one of their numbers.

Nox and I had moved many thousands of priceless artifacts from major Sith locations and excavations to a non-descript planet she had found that could just barely qualify as survivable, hopefully no one would come to an oxygen-less dustball with ever present storms the size of continents on its surface.

On this planet I named Revel for a few reasons, one of which being the former pirate and valued companion of Darth Nox, we created a temple that would withstand even the ravages that this planet created, many Sith came to live here and over time it became a refuge for the Sith of our… her former empire.

While the hunt continued I lived in peace, as much as I could while surrounded by Sith who were determined to kill eachother, they succeeded often and eventually the number of Sith was less than a dozen.

Then he came. The Hero of Tython found our planet somehow, I knew that I could not let him find Nox so I gathered the Sith under the guise of getting supplies from the orbital station and met him on it.

He had few words for me, his cold gaze hurt deeper than anything I had felt in the Empire because it was not the gaze I had longed to return to amongst the Jedi, it was one of utter apathy, he did not see me as redeemable, he did not see me as a fellow Jedi, he saw me as a target, just something in the way of his goal.

The fight was brief, I could not contend with the Hero nor could any of the Sith with me, but I did manage something he did not expect, I had the station exit its orbit so that it would crash into the surface, destroying all evidence of where the temple was located on planet, they would take years to find it on this planet, me and my master had seen to that.

As he pulled the Lightsaber from me and my lungs collapsed I saw something in his eyes, it was odd, out of place and I immediately felt warm because I knew what it was, sadness. Then no more.

When I awoke again it was in a tomb filled with the Light Side and it was to the alluring sound of my master, "Get up Ashara, did I ever say you could rest? You belong to me, all your efforts, all your achievements, all your soul, so get up and see what I have wrought."

In the decades after I gave my strength to her and she in turn wrought great destruction on the Jedi, she even managed to elevate herself to the equivalent of the Emperor, though I think that was more her own ego, she didn't have many subjects unless you count the legion who shared her mind with me.

I have spoken to her for many centuries and even kept her company through the stasis she put herself in on her ship. But then someone spoke to me from outside, someone who wasn't my master.

The world lit up. "What… ow! Ow ow ow ow, why… why is everything so painful?!" I curled up in extreme pain, the world was awash, but then I realized, this… this was the world, it was painful, but not in a soul jarring way, my body felt the pain, but it was also missing some things.

Lifting my hands up to my head I immediately noticed something missing that made me feel very uncomfortable. "Where! Where are my montrals! My Lekku! And why… oh. No… is she…"

I immediately look around and zero in on the only thing in the area that could have done something, a tan human woman with a scar on her face looking at me with an amused look, she seemed familiar somehow. "Did you… did you kill her? Is that why I'm here? Why would you do that… she… I… I could have… no… Nox, I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry."

A voice suddenly rang out from the woman, it sounded like the voice that spoke to me earlier, "Ashara! Calm down, you're fine, she's fine, everything's fine! Well… except for the old guy, he's dead, really dead, Nox made sure of that, anyway, I just pulled you out so I can talk to you, Nox is impossible to talk with."

I blinked my teary eyes as I looked up at her, "Really? But how did you do that? And why would you want to talk to me?" I didn't know the woman and she somehow had enough power to pull me out of Nox's head.

A smug grin replaced her slightly worried face, "About that, out of all the Force Users in the galaxy, I'm probably the one Nox least wants to fight, I have a couple thousand years of tricks and tech I've gathered up from traveling and I know a lot of Light Side techniques, such as the Jedi Mind Trick (Improved) which means I can basically elect a new leader for you little legion in there, though if I were to try to harm her she would take back over immediately."

I still didn't know who she was, "Who are you and you still didn't answer why me." For a moment she looked a little vacant as if she was recalling something.

Her eyes perked back up after a moment, "Well, I guess you don't remember me, my name is Kahvi, you might remember me from when we beat up Revan at the Foundry back when I was working with Belisaere under Baras, you know, the Emperor's Wrath?"

This woman, was from my era? And wasn't her name coffee or something? She seemed eccentric when we were working together the few times we did, there was another but she seemed insane so I avoided her, something like stabbo, "Are you… coffee or stabbo?"

The woman burst out laughing for some reason then wiped the tears from her eyes, "Girl, If I were Sta'Boh, you would be so dead it would be disgusting, though actually she would be dead cuz Nox would have killed her by now, no I am Kahvi, which, considering how much I also like caf, coffee works just fine."

She stepped toward me and put her arms underneath me and picked me up, "Let's get you outta here, and this is why I brought you along, none of the others in that head would have allowed me to carry you to the ship. On that note, welcome back for the time Ashara."

I smiled, still weirded out by my lack of sharp predatory teeth, "Thank You Kahvi, while my Master recovers I will act in her stead, it's good to be back. And thank you by the way." The woman just turned her head slightly and smiled as we entered her ship.

Author's notes,

That makes up pretty much the entirety of the Dark Side OC's, The Light Side might get a few more, but the Hero of Tython is going to be the MVP of the Light Side for a while yet. If anyone is interested in how Ahsoka fits into this story, that's where I'm going next so I hope you look forward to the little bundle of energy getting some traditional and some less traditional Sith training.

Also, as my youngest brother got a hold of my laptop while I had this document up I found a little present saved in the form of the next chapter, If you find it amusing, great, I know I did.

After ages the jedi finally cornered him and spat with disgust "your reign has come to an end darth Darth! Show your faltering strength to us and be slain with the dignity you should have long since abandoned!"

Darth Darth respites "SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS~. SENDS SHIVERS DOWN MY SPINE! SHRIEKING SKULLS WILL SHOCK YOUR SOUL, ASSURE YOUR DOOM TONIGHT!" and added a "WA, WA!"

The jedi's are sent into a babbling mess at the sheer power of the spell.

As devastation takes the the battle for the worst, a naked, genitalless force user approaches and says "A' well a' don't chu' know, about the word, cuz everybody knows the BIRD IS THE WORD!". As the last word is finished the jedi disappear into dust, and the darth is left along with the unknown force user.

Then they slap each other with their force slap at the same time, and do the same for the next millennia, where the Darth darth eventually leaves.

Gotta Love siblings, he went into a long rant as to why this should be in my next story, I told him something about his story didn't quite match the theme I was going for. Not sure which part. :)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Balancing the Scales of a Heart

~Ahsoka POV~

Something hazy and indistinct prodded me, as my mind and body came into synchronization and I woke up. "What… whossit?"

My blurry speech had the intended effect when the large Akk Dog that was sitting next made a growl into what I can only assume to be its attempt at communication sound. The critter then prodded me and I noticed where I was.

Three days ago I had come into the temple at the behest of my Master and had been greeted by an Akk Dog that had a hazy voice emitting from around it. The voice had told me to come to a certain chamber to complete a ritual.

The ritual involved a lot of calming down and a whole lot of forcing a ghost that both wanted to be bound and also instinctually didn't. After a full day of binding him I suddenly felt a Dark presence enter my mind and I lost consciousness.

Sliding my legs off of what I realized to be a stone slab coffin I asked the question to the Akk Dog, "Hey, so I bound you right? So how does this work, do I get a ton of power now and can kill all my enemies?"

The Dog slightly cocked its head to the side then a splitting headache racked my skull, "Child, do you truly wish to kill your enemies? Or do you wish to redeem them, perhaps you want to simply be acknowledged, all of these can be considered arrogant, are you still sure you wish to follow such an arrogant path?"

The voice finally ended and the headache went away, "I… I'm sorry… umm, master? I won't be arrogant, please teach me."

The voice came back, this time without the piercing headache, "You do not understand, are you a Jedi still? Do you deny yourself? You are arrogant, this is fact, why deny a source of power? Child, I am here to teach you, I will be your master while your Master is not around, I will grant you knowledge but I will not be your crutch, I will grant you no power you have not already earned. First, find the Akk Dogs of this temple, they are easily possessed creatures, destroy them or have them submit to this Alpha here, go."

The sudden instructions made me look at the Akk Dog in front of me, indeed he was large, but not impossibly so, the other Akk Dogs would likely already have groups and larger more dangerous Alphas.

The Akk Dog looked adorable while it was standing there mildly panting to cool itself off, "How do I do that?"

With no response forthcoming I walked toward the Akk Dog and patted him on the head, "Alright, let's get going then buddy, what should I call you?" Sitting in front of him I thought of what to call him.

"Let's call you… Tea! That sounds like a good name and you look like green tea." With Tea being named he turned around and started to head out of the room.

I quickly followed after him, "Hey wait Tea, let's work together!" The dog did not slow as I exited the room and started to run away.

While chasing after him I thought on how to do this, just make the other dogs like him? As I was behind him lost in thought I heard a growling sound and looked up. All around me were Akk Dogs and there was a big one in front.

Looking carefully around at them all I slowly put my hands out in a disarming manner, "Hey, don't worry, we're all friends here, calm down." I sent out calming waves of Force Energy toward the Akk Dogs so I could start to work with them.

The Akk Dogs suddenly growled and I felt a Dark Side presence inside the creatures, "Tea! Run!" I immediately pulled out my Lightsaber and stepped in front of him.

The rest of the Akk Dogs then attacked and I had to defend myself. The first Akk Dog lunged into my Lightsaber, clearly not understanding the imminent death the weapon represented and was consequently sliced in half, the blood splattering all over my clothes and its dying scream reverberating through my Montrals.

The pack leader then stalked me for a few seconds then started tentatively lunging at me, its first attempt left it scarred on its armored hide and a little more cautious, after this it called the rest of its pack and rushed me at once.

The first I cut low, going for its legs and knocked it over, as it hit the ground screeching Tea ran up to it and started maul it, he then made its victory sound as blood flowed from the throat of the downed Akk Dog.

I glanced back for a moment and saw what Tea had done, while the creature was almost assuredly dead, to see the savagery that he performed frightened me and the pack leader leaped at me in my weakness.

The leader latched onto my off hand and I felt a vicious crack along with excruciating pain. My eyes dilated and the world suddenly became very loud as blood rushed to my Montrals. The Lightsaber next to me re ignited on the ground where I had apparently dropped it, I leapt onto the back of the creature and called my Lightsaber to me cutting its head off.

Leaping at the others on all fours they ran from me, the first I killed in much the same way as its leader, I leapt onto its back and sliced it in half. The next I knocked over and awkwardly sunk my underdeveloped fangs into its throat, finding the effects to be underwhelming I stabbed its throat and left it to bleed out.

The voice came back to me, "Child, I do not expect you to resist the Dark Side fully in this place, but nevertheless, training here will give you a resistance to it, find yourself and start again, find a pack and subdue it under your Akk Dog."

I felt the haze in my mind forced out and consumed by that voice and I was left with only a completely clear head and an excruciating pain in my off arm. I felt myself unconsciously bringing about the haze again but it was sucked away as rapidly as it was summoned.

I whimpered lightly as I picked myself up and walked down the hallway looking for another group, my extreme clarity of mind causing my mind to be unable to ignore the pain and making the steps all the more torturous.

Tea wandered up to me and shoved me, stepping in front of me and walking ahead of me, I felt grateful that it was keeping an eye ahead but then I realized that his shoving of me indicated it was more likely that he was showing superiority over me.

This time a different haze began to come over me and I realized the difference, this was not rage, this was hatred, I hated being stuck behind this weak little creature and being forced to make it strong.

As if sensing my intentions toward him Tea suddenly turned around growling and backed away from me. My Lightsaber hissed into existence and I stabbed at him gouging some of his head crest as he crouched low then lunged at my already bleeding arm.

The pain was already great enough that I was barely able to hold on, but the moment Tea bit in my consciousness nearly disappeared and I then stabbed him in the back of the neck, then I faded out completely.

~Belisaere POV~

Kaas City was still very much like how I left it, filled with the slimiest creatures the galaxy had to offer, this time it was more literal though, though the creatures were filled with enough Dark Side energy that it almost felt like the Sith never left.

After cutting in half the third tremendously oversized Akk Dog I had met in the last 20 minutes I realized forward progress would be non-existent if I didn't find some sort of either deterrent or transportation system.

At this point the only thing keeping Kaas City from being a drowned city was the extensive efforts they put into preventing it from sinking, while ineffective in the long run it did allow the city to haphazardly maintain itself and one of those heavy duty droids was currently moving to some location, there's my ride.

The droid had long since had its external sensors damaged, it was running off of what was effectively programmed instinct, in fact, if anything had broken along its path it would have been unable to account for it and would have gotten stuck. There were a few rusted hulks that were a testament to my previous thoughts, they had likely ran into something and tried to move for a few months then ran out of power and died.

The droid walked to a large power conduit that seemed to be still active somehow and began welding the large gash closed, another large Akk Dog was lying next to the power conduit looking especially cooked. "Serves your stupid curiosity right." I don't like these Dark Side Akk Dogs.

Running atop the power conduit was a walkway that ran in the direction I wanted, high enough up that I could ignore the Akk Dogs by moving swiftly enough or knocking them off it.

Running swiftly along the power conduit I noticed it was raising higher and higher and eventually the giant cable left the ground entirely raising in a gradual curve upward. Through the haze I finally found what the cable was attached to at the other end, a huge tower rising into the sky, this was a very familiar location.

Inside the tower in front of me was the former empire embassy for the Mandalorians, the Central Hub for Imperial Intelligence and of course the Sith's core, the only place comparably filled with the Dark Side is on Korriban that I recall.

Dropping off the conduit onto the cliff-like walls of the building I half slid, half fell my way down to the walkway between the sections of the building.

Once on the walkway I headed into the Mandalorian Enclave and immediately the Force warned me in the direction of the ceiling, not even a quarter second later the ceiling exploded and shrapnel flew out from above me right on top of me.

Before the explosion occurred I rapidly darted back and pulled the Force in close to me and stacked my personal shield generator with it. The resulting double barrier immediately shattered and my armor took the full brunt of the shockwave.

"Shit, this armor is going to need some repairs now, at least the barriers managed to stop the shrapnel; that could have gone better." Pushing myself off the ground I surveyed the destruction.

I can't make it in, the entrance is almost completely covered and the hole is so small I couldn't have fit in it even if I removed my armor. Sighing lightly I step back and begin to mutter, "Mandalorians…" and head off to the center of the building, where the Sith formerly congregated.

As I arrived in front of the entrance I felt something in the Force, different from when I had been warned at the Mandalorian Enclave, it felt more similar to when Jaesa Willsaam, my apprentice, was in danger.

Realizing what this was my eyes widened and I turned around to the speeder landing area to see if anything was still active, unfortunately nothing was fully functional, some turned on but couldn't hover and some seemed to have functioning propulsion but wouldn't stay on.

Cursing that I had never been very good with engineering on anything but my armor and weapons I brought back memories of working on my ship with Vette.

"_Calm down! The ship isn't going anywhere and neither are we, give me the part to your left." Vette quieted me down unsuccessfully, we had been in a spaceport that had been bombed and were likely to be bombed again soon._

"_Vette, if you tell me to calm down again…" I threatened her, my emotions far from being calm, the entire situation could have been avoided had we just ignored that stupid request from the Dark Council, but now I had an unconscious Apprentice, and an irritable captain who had gone off to find anything to help the situation._

_Vette paused for a moment and turned to me, and lifted the goggles from her eyes, "Excuse me? You can gather your Dark Side energy all you want in battle, but this isn't battle, this is survival, so unless you have a way to summon a new capacitor for this you get to sit down, give me the tools I need and tell Quinn what he needs to find for me, unless you don't mind not seeing as much blue as I'm sure you want to." _

_At that she grinned mischievously and hitched up her upper clothes a little more, I suppose that was one way to motivate me, but still, I don't like the insinuation that I can't hold myself back around her, though I suppose after we married a few years ago I haven't really given any indications that this isn't true…_

_Handing a tool to her she began talking lightly about how she was repairing the damaged components, most of what I heard was Jargon that made no sense to me, "And that's how you repair a damaged drive, useful life skill I'm glad I picked up, simple right?"_

_Nodding to hide my confusion I thought it was anything but simple, I hadn't understood almost anything she had mentioned, but it might be useful one day so I locked the information away for later. "You are a strange woman sometimes my love." A light smile came across both our lips._

"_Love you too my big bad Sith."_

Dredging up memories long past I recalled the things she had told me at the time, I have since then had many opportunities to learn what they all mean and began pulling parts from the damaged speeders and fixing up a medium sized two-seater.

Thinking of Ahsoka I muttered lightly, "Coming child, hold on, potential such as yours won't be snuffed out so easily right?"


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A Strange Gathering

Setting the parts around the speeder in a diagram-esque pattern I slowly began to put my memories to use. A slight grunt of pain left my lips after I slid underneath the speeder scratching my left face tendril, making me wish I could wear my helmet while working on this.

The ozone felt strange to breathe and I was reminded that I had been pulling the air through the filter for a while now, the last time I had taken my helmet off was… probably with the Jedi, I needed a cleaning soon.

With a comparatively new part replacing every damaged one I stood up and wiped the sweat from my brow, this planet was always raining so it should be somewhat cold, but unfortunately in this situation that isn't true, it's rather humid.

The speeder coughed to life and I waited for the engine to warm up a little, no sense in forcing it immediately without letting it warm up.

Sitting back in the ruined seats I lightly stroked my tendril and felt the cut, the blood had congealed over the last 30 minutes but I still felt the throbbing underneath warning of damage I already knew of.

Finally I felt confident that it wouldn't just drop when we went over a cliff and I set off to Dark Temple again. I could feel my thoughts turning darker as I briefly wondered how it would feel to tear the tendril off my face, would it be agonizing, if I did the same thing to the other one would it balance out and I would look like a low blood purity Sith?

An hour of flying later I arrived at the Dark Temple entrance and leapt out running, "Ahsoka! Where are you?!" Keeping my speed up I felt a Light presence on the second floor and leapt up to it.

There lying on the ground was Ahsoka, I noticed a number of Akk Dogs standing a distance off prowling but not approaching. Walking over to her I felt a predatory feeling emanating from her clearly unconscious body.

Realizing the source of the aura I spoke, "Kel'Eth Ur I assume this is you protecting her? What happened here? And why is she injured so heavily?"

I felt a tired brush with my mind and realized that Kel'Eth Ur was not in a situation to respond, "Very well, I'll take it from here, please rest, I have found some of what I needed to in Kaas City."

The predatory aura wafted away and was rapidly replaced with my own murderous aura, needless to say the Akk Dogs left rapidly but not before I caught a slightly larger one with the Force and cleaved its head off.

Dragging the body over to Ahsoka I grabbed her and the creature and headed down to the entrance where I could start a fire.

~Ahsoka POV~

What a weird feeling, it feels like… Plo Koon? No… its more similar to… it's such a rough presence. "Awake I see."

Then I heard him, shoot, it's Master, but I haven't moved yet, maybe I can stay perfectly still and he won't notice me, I don't think he'll like me failing my first task so miserably.

On that note, I really botched that one, I got angry then I got angry again, even with the help of Kel'Eth Ur I still managed to become irritated enough at Tea to… I opened one of my eyes ever so slightly to look at my arm which for some reason wasn't throbbing extremely painfully despite what I remember happening to it.

Unfortunately Master did manage to notice this and he grabbed me by the shoulder lifting me into the air, "Mind telling me what exactly happened for you to have broken your arm and be unconscious in the middle of the Dark Temple, while being protected by a Spirit?"

If I could have been lightly kicking the dirt to distract myself from the embarrassment I would have but I was suspended too far off the ground, "I… um, I didn't really mean to…"

Master didn't let me finish, "You didn't take his task seriously enough did you, you thought it would be simple, you are clearly accomplished enough as a warrior, but whatever task he gave you was likely simple due to the insidious nature of this Dark Temple, getting used to the Dark Side so it can't take you over should be your first priority."

At that he set me down and took the necklace that he had given me off, "I will be taking you somewhere where the Dark Side doesn't creep into you, it forces your mind open and takes its place, there you will know the Dark Side and you will train to resist it." He then gave me a large piece of meat and began eating another piece himself.

I tentatively sat down next to him and began eating as well, the moment he had taken off the necklace the feeling I had when we got near this place came back and I began to shiver, this was a place that was cold, unforgivingly so.

"Remember your training amongst the Jedi, this will likely help your training amongst the Light Side, I want your base in the Light Side to be strong as you will be in the company of Sith and the Dark Side constantly from now on." Belisaere lightly glanced at me as if appraising me.

~Belisaere POV~

Ahsoka was an idiot, she didn't listen to instruction and got herself heavily injured for it, clearly she had a different understanding of the Dark Side than I wanted her to, though I can attribute this to being my own fault.

Opening my eyes from the closest thing I could get to meditation this close to the Dark Temple I looked at Ahsoka, lying under a blanket nearby, "Get up! Your training from me starts as of now!" Saying that she started groggily responding.

She still didn't understand, kicking her in the side I yelled, "GET UP! You believe me to be a harmless Sith because I have shown some favor to you? That ends today!"

After being kicked she much more rapidly got up and looked at her surroundings confused, she clearly didn't expect to be rudely awakened in such a way. "Follow me. We are getting food."

She seemed to perk up at this, good, getting her spirit back in such a simple way would help her during this upcoming training. Unfortunately for her, by food I meant some of the rather larger fauna of the region.

Standing atop a hill I saw a monster that I honestly couldn't remember the name of, it was one of the dozens I had slaughtered while on planet in my apprentice days. "That one, kill it."

Ahsoka gave me a look like I was crazy, the thing was well over double her size, "How on earth am I supposed to kill a thing like that?"

Looking at her I let a little of my Sith nature shine out in the form of a cruel smile, "Not my problem." I threw her off the cliff with the Force right into the middle of two of them.

The one I hadn't noticed reacted faster turning to face her and then recognizing food, it lunged somewhat clumsily and Ahsoka sidestepped it, right into the other one.

Hitting the other one with good momentum it reacted much swifter as it was under attack, it turned and swung it limbs toward her in a horizontal midsection sweep. "Shoot!" With the huge limbs coming at her she did the only thing a Jedi has been trained to do, she put her Lightsaber in its path.

Unfortunately for her, Lightsabers do not completely ignore inertia and she was sent flying right back into the other monster. Realizing her own peril she performed a Force Push at the creature to get it away from herself.

This worked somewhat, it caused the creature to become slightly staggered which allowed her to escape. As she ran back up the side of the cliff I Force Pushed her again, "They aren't dead! Are you planning on failing again?"

Returning to dire straits again she started darting around the one that had ran ahead of the other, by putting slashes all along its body the creature gradually slowed down.

Eventually she started targeting tendons to disable the creature and within 10 minutes the creatures had become unresponsive enough due to blood loss that she was able to safely stab into the jugular finishing them both for good.

Panting and covered in the monster's blood she fell over as I walked up to her, "Good job, I'll leave preparation of this one to you, I will start work on preserving the other one so that we will have food for the days to come."

She looked up at me in disbelief, "What do you mean prepare? Like, cook it?"

The answer seemed obvious to me, her denial was amusing though "You live by killing don't you? Your species always has, just because you have been raised by the Jedi Order to be pacifistic if possible does not mean you are not a predator, clearly you have not hunted enough."

Ahsoka, being a Togruta should have a significant predatory instinct, unfortunately the Jedi likely weakened that instinct significantly, they are carnivores and natural hunters, I always wondered why there weren't more Sith Togruta considering their nature seems to inherently lean to the Dark Side.

Pulling out a long wicked looking knife I stabbed into the flesh of the creature and began cutting it up, while I had a basic understanding of the anatomy of this creature, when butchering there is a technique that is hard to forget.

"Here, use this knife to butcher that thing, I don't expect you to do well, but I do expect some pieces of good cooking meat." I handed her the knife after I finished.

Honestly, if one didn't know how to butcher something, the process could be extremely disgusting and incredibly bloody, rather than being disturbed I was looking away to hold back my own amusement at her proceedings.

After an hour of her hacking the poor body to pieces she finally had a few good pieces, though legs and arms are somewhat cheating as there aren't many ways to not get cuts of meat from them, after all they are mostly muscle anyway.

3 hours after we started we finally had our breakfast and I felt reasonably content, Ahsoka however was currently doing her best to fend off predators that had smelled the excessive blood everywhere and on her.

"Apprentice, stop playing with the local wildlife and follow!" I began a determined stride after getting up and we swiftly returned to the Dark Temple while being followed the whole way.

Once in the Temple I headed to the back and began walking through some passageways that I had found in the years after the Hero of Tython's raid. Finally finding a huge open room that was likely even now possessed in some small part by the Emperor of my time I sat down on a broken pillar.

Ahsoka was holding her head when I turned around and had fallen to her knees. "Ahsoka, who is your master?"

The girl looked slowly up at me in confusion, this place was destroying her concentration. "You…?"

Not letting her go I began asking her to recount her life's tale, from beginning to end, we were going to be here awhile and she needed to retain a sense of self, hopefully this would be enough.

A day later while she was resting just outside the chamber I received a holocall from Nox, "Um, hi Belisaere, I found something you might appreciate, we will…"

Suddenly looking to the side of the call she appeared to be whispering to someone and I thought I heard, "Sound more menacing"

Suspicious as I was, it was still unlikely Nox would be defeated or that someone would have this frequency. "I have your woman here and If you want her back come to… No! no way!" The conversation devolved after that into hurried whispers but I had heard the important part.

"Nox, If you have Vette and she is alive you will bring her to me immediately!" Feeling my argument was somewhat weak but not particularly caring I yelled at Nox.

Recoiling she stuttered for a moment and then ended the connection. "One week, one week, give her that, Ahsoka needs the training too…" I tried to calm myself down in perhaps the worst place in the galaxy to do so and failed predictably.

"Apprentice! Get in here immediately!" Standing up and bellowing into the hallway leading away from the chamber I heard a startled exclamation.

While I was wondering briefly on why Nox seemed so different from normal Ahsoka ran into the room looking incredibly sleep-deprived. The Dark Side was taking its toll on her it seems, "So? How did fighting phantoms in your dreams go?"

Looking particularly murderous she raised her exhausted head, "Why do we need to stay here? Everything is wrong here… It's… so… freakin… WRONG!" at her last word she Force pushed the pillar next to her smashing it into the wall.

Lightly clicking my tongue I stood up and activated my Lightsaber, "Next round then, try to harm me, if you injure me or kill me you get out."

At that point I forced a small part of me to return to calm and the Light Side reasserted itself in me. I then looked at Ahsoka and started channeling the Light Side into her, perhaps with a few more days of this mind-wrenching training she would have a more active connection to both sides of the Force.

While I admit the training is somewhat cruel, I am confident that her training as a Jedi has steeled her mind significantly, the Jedi specialized in that after all. "Best of luck Apprentice, may the Force be with you." A wicked smile came across my mouth as a chance to alleviate my stress came.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Red and Blue

An entire week has passed since I talked to Nox and while Ahsoka has been progressing splendidly I have not gotten a moment of proper rest. If Nox truly had Vette and was coming here how would I act?

In the grand scheme of things the time we had spent apart had been miniscule but I had been misled to assume she had died in a truly horrific fashion, by Nox no less.

Looking over at the panting Ahsoka lying flat on a pillar trying to recover her stamina I briefly regained my humor at the sight, "You may act like her but in the end you're just a kid."

Somewhat regaining her spunk the girl felt the chance for banter she hadn't participated in since she was with the Jedi. "And what's that supposed to mean? I'm an accomplished Jedi Padawan and am able to survive this stupid ordeal, I'm not a kid!"

The healthy banter was only possible since we had moved out of the heart of the temple, while we were still in the temple, the oppressive aura was pathetic when compared to before, Ahsoka barely even registered this level of the Dark Side now.

"It doesn't matter, you're short, your Montrals are barely peaked and don't get me started on the rest of your bodies development, no you are a child and I will treat you as such." My words carrying a harsh reality while smiling were too much for her to take.

"I am an adult! I just am slow growing! Togruta grow slower! It's normal! Even my Montrals are starting to get taller by a bit, and my Lekku are too!" She retorted quickly denying all my accusations.

Feeling the conversation heading in a direction I had no intention on broaching with a child who is not my own I looked out to the temple entrance, I had headed here after I received a brief message from Nox simply stating to wait at the entrance of the temple.

Suddenly the Force tugged to my sight upwards and I heard the descent of something that definitely wasn't Nox's Fury. "Apprentice, ready yourself, an unexpected situation as arisen."

The ship that came into view looked almost like a Fury but was so heavily modified and exotic it was difficult to tell, If Nox truly had been defeated somehow this was unlikely to be an opponent I could defeat.

As the ship landed I pulled out an explosive device and set it on the entrance to the temple to hopefully collapse it, temporarily protecting Ahsoka. "You recall how to get out of the temple from the other side correct? Because if things go wrong here I will be destroying the entrance to give you time to run."

Looking at me in confusion she simply stated "But there is a Light Side presence on that ship." She didn't yet know that the Light Side was not synonymous with good guys.

"As you now know, the Dark Side is not made up of pure evil, unfortunately this also means that the Light Side is also not made up of only good, the presence on that ship is not weak though I do feel like I've felt it before…" This thought brought greater alarm to myself as I imagined one of the Jedi of this era pursuing me and somehow defeating Nox.

The ramp slowly lowered and I found the Force around me suddenly lighting up inside me, something was right, something was here, I already knew who it was but I refused to let myself hope only to let it die.

But the Force finally set me free, she was here and it didn't matter if the entire galaxy was holding her hostage, not with her so close.

I pulled the Force in and started breathing deeply, folding its presence in me over and over, refining and readying it before a pair of incredibly heavy looking boots came into view.

In a voice I hadn't heard in many years of my own time, nostalgia yet again spoke to me, "Hey there Wrath, long time no see, huh?"

It was slightly different but it was still the voice of a Sith named Kahvi I knew, "How are… nevermind, are you here peacefully or otherwise?"

She finally came into view fully, the woman was a juggernaut in her armor, it was a wonder she could even move. Her boots seamlessly connected into the metal of her greaves which had enough black spikes to make even the most hardcore bandit feel lacking.

Her chestplate screamed of murder, the color of dried blood encrusted along the length of the individual fused plates, only the slightest curve of the metal indicating the gender of the wearer. Her helmet almost seemed to be fused into the immense pauldrons on her shoulder, making me wonder if she could turn her neck, and certain that she couldn't see at more than a 160 degree angle.

Looking at this menace in front of me made me wonder if it was truly the one I thought she was, "I have come to deliver what is… I'm sorry, this is just entirely useless, I can't keep a straight face."

I could hardly tell that her face was not straight but I certainly heard her laughing through the helmet, "Is there a reason you are wearing armor that would seem to be your opposite Kahvi?"

The seal on the helmet was removed and the person beneath was the same scarred woman I recall, beautiful if you were into muscles and sarcasm. "Hey, I tried with the armor to look as scary as possible, it's our reunion after all right? I mean, for you it's been like, a few months, but for me? Not so much. Also, Jedi were never good at developing armor, Sith though… bloody good armor, literally."

An insufferable idiot, but, apparently an accomplished one, "In case you didn't notice I've been staying in the Dark Temple, my mood is not very good, I felt her, is she truly here?"

Kahvi looked briefly behind her, which almost made me grin because of the futility of turning her head, all she got to see was pauldrons. "Umm, welp, I would confirm but this armor has other thoughts, clearly you should check it out, I'm gonna go talk to the cutie over there."

Striding off the ramp towards Ahsoka I had a momentary twinge of guilt for leaving Ahsoka to her fate with the overbearing woman, but then almost immediately I quelled my escapism, she was here, she could be different, she could be barely alive, it could just be her body, I unconsciously inhibited myself from feeling her in the Force.

Stepping onto the ramp I saw Nox slowly walking off as well, perfectly healthy it seems, she even gave me a light smile and wave as I passed by her. Only after I had passed her did I suddenly get hit by the strangeness of what I had seen but, again, ignored my surroundings.

I heard a voice from up ahead, one which was utterly perfect, "Shoot, why didn't they wake me up sooner, the stupidest reunion ever at this rate…"

Almost laughing I turned the corner and ran into a small blue Twi'Lek hopping forward on one foot while tying the laces on her other foot, so inelegant, so awkward, exactly what I had wanted.

Fallling backwards she let out a light shriek and tried to steady herself but what she grabbed was just my cloak while also simultaneously kicking one of my legs out from under me, dragging me with.

The woman I had collapsed onto closed her eyes and rubbed her nose, "Owww, watch where you're walking with that huge block of armor you…"

At that moment she opened her eyes and saw me, I pulled my cheeks up into a genuine smile, one I'm still not sure I got right then hugged her tightly, "I thought I lost you, then I was doomed to live in this world knowing that I had failed you and there was nothing I could do, but none of that matters anymore."

After being bewildered for a moment, she hugged me back and whispered, "This has all the benefits of being long lost lovers, but I only lost about a week to get it, I gotta admit, feeling more like a positive than a negative."

I could just imagine her grinning to her own quip but I didn't care, let her drop every statement of sarcasm I had so missed from her.

After a bit she started squirming, "Okay, I get it, you love me, I love you too you big lug, now move, it's getting kinda hard to breathe."

Finally getting to my feet I helped her up just in time to hear some shuffling behind me, looking back I saw the top of a pair of retreating Montrals, "Ahsoka, get over here, I saw you, don't bother hiding."

The Montrals slowly made their way back until she came to the top of the ramp and I could see her, "Ahsoka, this is my wife, also, she is an expert hacker and marksman, I have taught you the initial components of the Light and Dark Side, she can teach you about that which has no affiliation to the Force."

I looked at my wife, "Vette, I want to raise the new Sith Order, this one will be founded on the principle that the Force is a tool and it is to be wielded, some will have more affinity for one side over the other, but both sides have their strengths, please teach the students I will find."

Vette glanced at me then sighed lightly, "That was a whole lot of consulting with me beforehand, but sure, though I hope this isn't where we are gonna stay…"

Shaking my head I then looked at the other two at the bottom of the ramp, "Kahvi, would you mind helping me to create my order? I am in short supply of trained Light Side teachers at the moment."

Kahvi winked at me in a disgusting manner, "Sure thing, I was kinda doing the same thing anyway, but your setup sounds much more interesting than my barely useful one."

Turning my head to the more challenging to convince of the two, "Nox, would you be willing to train my students in the Dark Side Force Techniques? I would request you do not corrupt the students to the Dark Side though."

Nox seemed drawn into the charged atmosphere and grinned while saying "I would love to teach a younger generation of all that I have learned."

This new Nox was incredibly odd and I told myself to ask Kahvi later what she did to Nox, in the meantime I had found some teachers, now I just needed students and I knew a perfect place to take a peek into to find some new students, "Alright, well I leave Ahsoka in your capable hands, Kahvi, please find a planet that is strongly attuned to the Force and somewhat balanced in the Force, I know it's a tall order but I'm sure you can find one eventually."

Kahvi raised her hand for some reason "I actually know of three! I'll take Ahsoka and Nox along to each one and we can decide which one is perfect, but first let's get you a ship from the graveyard, also, best of luck red!"

Lightly grumbling I responded "I'll need it I believe, but thank you nonetheless, I'm going to have some questions for you later." I looked toward her fighter.

After wondering about it briefly I ignored the uniqueness of her vehicle, "In the meantime I'm gonna need a ride to the graveyard, mind giving me a lift?" Kahvi just smiled and went to the pilot seat.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Return to Conflict

Looking around I finally found the ship I wanted, a non-descript bounty hunter ship, the type that might still reasonably be in use thousands of years after being made, the goal being to not stand out. Bounty hunters and smugglers have some strange looking ships after all, therefore the ship only needs to look somewhat viable.

"With the choice of dreadnaughts, cruisers, frigates and even a mobile space station, you're going with a weird lookin' smuggler thing?" A crude voice cut in behind me, immediately ruining my thoughts.

Looking back towards her I noted she had changed out of her ridiculously over the top Sith horror armor and into some comfortable and completely defenseless dark grey robes. Ahsoka was still along until we got a few ships to help everyone around and she was looking at the woman like she was the strangest being she had ever seen.

"What was that evil looking armor you were wearing? It felt like it wanted to kill me…" Ahsoka said, curiosity finally letting her talk after the armor was put away.

Kahvi looked at her briefly and smiled before ignoring her and turning to me, "So, I like the squirt, when'd you and blue get the chance?" She seemed to be implying something but I learned to simply not go with her pace in order to get anything done.

Admiring the rugged construction that had kept the ship alive when it was active and far after I absently talked to Kahvi. "If the ship lets me get in close to the Jedi order a few times it will be worth its weight in gold…"

Pausing to consider my phrasing next to a woman who would turn any and all words into useless chatter I decided to simply enter the ship as she began to start a joke about what I'm sure would involve gold and weight.

The ship looked awfully similar to the ship of an old bounty hunter I knew, his was kept frighteningly clean whereas this one clearly hadn't been the cleanest thing even before it was abandoned.

Probing the ship with the force brought back an interesting result, a stash of focus crystals in the hold in some smugglers hiding hole. Grinning briefly I went to the back and tore the panel off revealing a crate with at least eighty crystals, an amount that would have taken some serious coordination to acquire under illegal means and only a step away from impossible by legal means.

"I'll take this as my payment for my services from my timeline then!" the voice of Kahvi suddenly came from right next to me, startled my Lightsaber flared but then immediately died back as I realized Kahvi had gotten close to me without me realizing, just another trick with the Force.

Practically growling from the adrenaline spike I looked at Kahvi, "Get the crystals to the others, we'll need Lightsaber quality crystals soon, not to mention, my Lightsaber is probably quite outdated at this point, let's see if the Jedi can resolve this too."

Spinning around on my heels I made my way to the pilots seat, "Get out Kahvi, you know what needs to get done, do it. Ahsoka, train with Nox while she's friendly in the Lightside, with Vette in any and all mundane combat and support skills and Kahvi here in everything to do with the Force and whatever mysteries it contains, she'll know more than me in that department."

Ahsoka looked like she wanted to say something but averted her eyes and began to leave. "What? Say it, I have no intention of abandoning you Ahsoka, spit it out." I said trying to reassure her.

Looking back up at me she let go of one of her insecurities, "Will you fight the Jedi? Will you kill them?" She clearly looked incredibly uncomfortable notion I had assumed incorrectly she had partially come to terms with.

Reaching my conclusion I looked at the girl, "Ahsoka, my fight has always been an inconvenient one, I fight the Dark Side and the Light Side at every step, I cannot say I will not fight them, but I will endeavor to not kill them, please rest assured."

And with that I kicked the engine on and all conversation ceased.

I did not particularly like feeling the need to give some petty and useless promise to Ahsoka, but it was true, I had no intention of killing Jedi as part of my task. Injuring the Jedi? Very likely and I would probably enjoy it, but killing them would permanently damage relation, we certainly couldn't have that now could we? My grin took on a mildly sinister look.

Kahvi stepped out of the ship and called out behind her, "Alright, the pipsqueaks with me then, I'll turn her into a locus of power that can eat the force!"

My eyebrows rose as I thought about whether she actually could do that but remembered before I asked to not get dragged into her pace. "Get out of here Kahvi, make sure the girl comes to no harm and keep an eye on Nox, I don't care all that much what you do but keep me informed."

The ship ramp closed before Kahvi could retort again, forever trying to get the last word in. Looking toward the control panel I started the ship and heard it come to life around me, even now sounding like it was actively destroying itself.

The ship had better hold together as well as I thought it would, I should see about getting one of the Jedi fighter ships, those things are so tiny I could store one of them on a large smuggler ship for back up.

Inputting a few return codes that would be useful in case I came back I started up the launch sequence and the station sent back the all clear, evidently those systems came back up fine without requiring any persons intervention.

The ship whined as it picked up and the shields opened letting the ship exit, the light of the stars now fully evident against the backdrop of space, "Under my own power again… Jedi, you really should have gotten better at sensing the Dark Side."

~Anakin POV~

Everything was rapidly falling apart, first an ancient Sith wakes up then an ancient Jedi wakes up as well, kinda, he was possessing some kid or something. The last few weeks have been filled with arguing. The Jedi Council is constantly bickering with the new Jedi and have called me in a few times.

The new Jedi is disconcerting, his eyes are almost dead, he looks straight through me and every time he looks at me I swear he is looking into my soul.

I haven't been able to see Padme at all in the last few days and it has been bothering me, I've put in more effort to try and improve myself so that if I see that Sith again I can run him through.

Some quiet steps alerted me to someone coming up behind me, "You are an interesting person Chosen One, normally I would have someone of your… conflictions excommunicated but given your military and morale value to the Jedi and Republic I have decided to ignore this."

Turning around I the man in front of me is the ancient Jedi himself, "Thank you I think sir, I hope you don't mind me asking but who exactly are you to make that judgement?" My temper was already slightly rising.

He looked me up and down and seemed to scoff, "I am effectively a grandmaster of your order, from a time when the order was greater, Anakin, you are walking a dangerous path, one that could cripple you in the Force forever. Tread carefully."

With that said he turned and left as suddenly as he arrived leaving me confused, was he trying to help me or threaten me?

I shook my head lightly and went to the dropship bay to get to my ship, the admiral should have most of the information for the mission, sometimes I feel like I'm just along to make last minute plans to abuse my Jedi strength.

A few hours later I opened my eyes as the dropship landed in the bay, I felt a slight tug in the force, making me look at a non-descript smuggler or bounty hunter ship. The make of the ship was strange, per the norm of smugglers but even so, it's somewhat odd that it made it on board while we were about to leave for a mission.

Heading for the bridge I catch Rex on the way up, "Hey Rex, what's with the smuggler ship? In the bay?" Rex looked up slightly, slowly thinking but after a bit he shook his head. "Sorry, I got nothing, maybe the admiral knows more."

Arriving at the bridge I see a scary looking Bounty Hunter talking to the Admiral, "…Services to your cause, I'm the best you can buy, but for the purposes of this mission you can use me however you please, I have a debt to pay the trade federation."

The admiral appeared slightly irritated by the Bounty Hunter, "Look, I was fine with negotiating for your services sir, but frankly we don't need your help with the Trade Federation, while checking your credentials we found them to be interesting but even so…"

The Bounty Hunter crossed his arms seeming displeased, his helmet somewhat digitized his voice but he sounded distinctly unhappy, "I will fight with the Trade Federation regardless of your blessing."

With that he walked out in an infuriated manner, "Admiral, who was that?" The admiral turned to me and sighed ever so slightly, "He was from an old family of Bounty Hunters, tracing back at least a thousand years, apparently he has enmity with the Trade Federation but I am unable to trust him."

I'm still not entirely sure why he was allowed onto the ship but maybe his credentials make him more able to access our facilities than I was expecting. "At any rate, let's get this ship heading out the Trade Federation isn't known for being patient."

Looking from the bridge I watched the ship enter hyperspace, "I hope I find you soon Ahsoka…" The Force still whispered into my ears telling me of things to come, none of which gave me peace.


End file.
